Emma Woodhouse famously made Reading Lists of Improving Works to read with some regularity. She never read them. Making the lists was sufficiently improving.

Sometimes, I feel a bit like Emma, with my Good Reading Intentions. They are begun with all sorts of optimism and high enthusiasm. Like Emma’s, though, they don’t last long.

I still haven’t finished Othello, either reading or watching, which I began back at the beginning of March. Or my attempted Heyer project.

And now I have another Reading Plan. Hopefully this one will stick. And take in the previous plans.

I have a wall of books. Admittedly, they aren’t all mine: a reasonable number (over a hundred) is M’s, and the Tinies have a good number too. But most of them are mine, from my entire book-collecting history, both read and unread. And this doesn’t take into account the relatively few eBooks I also have.

My new Emma Reading List, however, is simply to work my way through all of them, ideally without adding too many new ones along the way. And trying not to focus too much on rereads and leaving the Unreads until the end.

Currently, I have Mansfield Park on the go on my Kindle. They’re knee-deep in rehearsals of the unsuitable Lovers’ Vows at the moment. This one has never been a particular favourite, although I quite like the 1999 Frances O’Connor adaptation. Fanny hasn’t yet improved my recollection of her, though.

I’m still deciding what to pull from the shelves. Perhaps I’ll finish Othello. Or perhaps I’ll reread one of the Enid Blytons from my childhood. The unedited versions, with Dick and Fanny. A light balance to Mansfield Park.