I knew of some people who were attempting to read through all of the Pulitzer prize winning novels in a year, or the Booker winners in a year, and thought that sounded like a great idea.
A way of exposing oneself to some (allegedly good) literature that one wouldn't necessarily pick up on one's own.
But i didn't want to copy-cat their idea. I considered a few of the big prizes, or even some of the big publishers' lists (Penguin Classics and the like - too large and overwhelming) and then decided to go for the gold of literary prizes and attempt to read all of the Nobel laureates in literature.
It'll be a bit harder both in the scope and depth of this venture, partly b/c the Nobel is given to a body of work, rather than to a specific piece. So not only would i have to read something by each writer, i'd also have to do some research and pick a particular work as well - one that i thought embodied their body of work. Although as I've already spotted, this might prove somewhat easy for some writers, as there's only one of their books in English translation. I'm not giving myself a set time frame since I'll also continue one of my book club memberships *and* will continue to read for fun as well. I'd like to put it at about 2 years beginning now, seeing as there are 104 laureates which works out conveniently enough to about 1 a week for 2 years. Having said that, and already admitting that I'll also continue to read for other reasons, I'm not sure if this is completely doable. So let's say that 2 years would be nice and something to strive for, but I won't exactly be broken-hearted (or too surprised) if I'm not able to finish by then.
I won't be reading them chronologically as i think that would drive me mad. My first ten writers or so will be determined solely by the books i already have in my collection (or have picked up in the last month or so) and in whatever order I feel like. After I've exhausted the few I already own, I thought I might use different methods to select the next title to read. Might throw a dart at a world map and choose this way or maybe have a little survey on the blog and my readers (hope to hoodwink at least a few friends into checking it out - 'Yes, this site is full of: [insert the following] kittens, naked chicks, naked guys, cheat-sheets for Grand Theft Auto IV') can pick choice A, B, C, or J ;o)
We shall see - it'll be an ever developing project. I hope to have some pics thrown in of yours truly (always in disguise - Why? B/c it'll be fun) reading the selection du jour in various spots, a bit like Where's Waldo for the literati (er, i'm not really this precious, i promise).
But enough intro, they always bore me to tears and I usually end up skipping them. On to the first book...
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