Pulitzer Reading Challenge

[Scheherazade]

Starting from next month, I am hoping to read all the Pulitzer winners (fiction) by 2015 (yes, yes... 6 whole years).

If anyone would like to join me, they are more than welcome.

Here is a list of the winners so far:

2013 Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

2012 No awards

2011 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

2010 Tinkers by Paul Harding

2009 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books)

2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Alfred A. Knopf)

2006 March by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)

2005 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar)

2004 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad/ HarperCollins)

2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar)

2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Alfred A. Knopf)

2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Random House)

2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin)

1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin)

1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (Crown)

1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford (Alfred A. Knopf)

1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Viking)

1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Charles Scribner's Sons)

1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (Henry Holt)

1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf)

1991 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike (Alfred A. Knopf)

1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (Farrar)

1989 Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf)

1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison (Alfred A. Knopf)

1987 A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (Alfred A. Knopf)

1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster)

1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (Random House)

1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy (Viking)

1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace)

1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (Knopf)

1981 A Confederacy of Dunces by the late John Kennedy Toole (a
posthumous publication) (Louisiana State U. Press)

1980 The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (Little)

1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (Knopf)

1978 Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (Atlantic Monthly Press)

1977 (No Award)

1976 Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (Viking)

1975 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (McKay)

1974 (No Award)

1973 The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (Random)

1972 Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (Doubleday)

1971 (No Award)

1970 Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Farrar)

1969 House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (Harper)

1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (Random)

1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (Farrar)

1966 Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Harcourt)

1965 The Keepers Of The House by Shirley Ann Grau (Random)

1964 (No Award)

1963 The Reivers by William Faulkner (Random)

1962 The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor (Little)

1961 To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Lippincott)

1960 Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (Doubleday)

1959 The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (Doubleday)

1958 A Death In The Family by the late James Agee (a posthumous publication) (McDowell, Obolensky)

1957 (No Award)

1956 Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (World)

1955 A Fable by William Faulkner (Random)

1954 (No Award)

1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner)

1952 The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk (Doubleday)

1951 The Town by Conrad Richter (Knopf)

1950 The Way West by A. B. Guthrie (Sloane)

1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (Harcourt)

1948 Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener (Macmillan)

1947 All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (Harcourt)

1946 (No Award)

1945 A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (Knopf)

1944 Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin (Harper)

1943 Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair (Viking)

1942 In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow (Harcourt)

1941 (No Award)

1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Viking)

1939 The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Scribner)

1938 The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand (Little)

1937 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Macmillan)

1936 Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis (Harper)

1935 Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson (Simon & Schuster)

1934 Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller (Harper)

1933 The Store by T. S. Stribling (Doubleday)

1932 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (John Day)

1931 Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes (Houghton)

1930 Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge (Houghton)

1929 Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin (Bobbs)

1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (Boni)

1927 Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield (Stokes)

1926 Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (Harcourt)

1925 So Big by Edna Ferber (Doubleday)

1924 The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson (Harper)

1923 One of Ours by Willa Cather (Knopf)

1922 Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday)

1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (Appleton)

1920 (No Award)

1919 The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday)

1918 His Family by Ernest Poole (Macmillan)

1917 (No Award)


I have read only 10 books from this list; all I can is that "Hurray for "No-award years!"

[book_jones]

I've read 8 of them so far. Not bad considering I haven't really been trying. I would join in but I'm still reading all of those modern library 100 books. Maybe after I'm done with that, which will probably be a couple years from now if I'm lucky.

[Zee.]

I'll join you :]

[papayahed]

Your lists crack me up!!! What about the big read??? I'll come along for the ride as well.

[LitNetIsGreat]

No time for that lot I'm afraid, but would anyone recommend The Road by Cormac McCarthy it's a book that I seem to be hearing a lot about?

[shortstoryfan]

I have begun reading The Road, and really want to finish it, but for me it is too emotionally upsetting.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I have begun reading The Road, and really want to finish it, but for me it is too emotionally upsetting.

Yes, I've heard it is quite heavy in some respects, but that doesn't put me of too much as long as it is well writen.

[JBI]

Yuk. You'd do better with Nobel prize winners in 20 years, at least then you would read something that isn't American. Though, Carol Shields seems more Canadian than American.

[mortalterror]

I'm doing something similar but I'm on a drama kick. I made a list of all the Pulitzer, Tony, and Olivier winners. Since the beginning of February I've gotten:

1.A Delicate Balance
2.Luther
3.Doubt: A Parable
4.The History Boys
5.Broken Glass
6.The Teahouse of the August Moon
7.M. Butterfly
8.Proof
11.Wit
12.The Heidi Chronicles
13.I'm Not Rappaport
14.The Desperate Hours
15.Sunday in the Park With George
16.Death of a Salesman
17.Three Tall Women

As well as a few things by Lope De Vega, Eugene O'Neill, and Gorky. Sometimes I get a little sick of the twentieth century novel and I want something different.

[Scheherazade]

I'll join you :]

Your lists crack me up!!! What about the big read??? I'll come along for the ride as well.

Great! We can report here every 3-4 months and share how things are going. I think I will start from the oldest in the list and read my way through to the more recent ones (though there might be some exceptions).

Papaya> I am still working on that too, which is why I have given myself 6 years to complete this list. It is just that I am getting a little tired of reading classic British literature.

No time for that lot I'm afraid, but would anyone recommend The Road by Cormac McCarthy it's a book that I seem to be hearing a lot about?

I have begun reading The Road, and really want to finish it, but for me it is too emotionally upsetting.

The Book Club read this last summer and they seemed to agree that it was emotionally loaded. I could not take part because I could not get hold of a copy (from the library).

Yuk. You'd do better with Nobel prize winners in 20 years, at least then you would read something that isn't American. Though, Carol Shields seems more Canadian than American.

Interestingly enouglh, I would like to read something "American" because recently all my reading has been British and Indian. I have always felt that I am lacking when it comes to American literature.

I'm doing something similar but I'm on a drama kick. I made a list of all the Pulitzer, Tony, and Olivier winners.

That's a great idea, Mortal. Maybe I might give drama a try once I have consumed this list.

[Hank Stamper]

i'll take '74 and '77

[Schokokeks]

Starting from next month, I am hoping to read all the Pulitzer winners (fiction) by 2015

Wow, what an impressive task! I hope you intended this to be some sort of joint operation with each volunteer reading through his/her part of the list?

A friend and I once tried to watch all the movies that had won the Oscar for "Best Picture"; we got about half through the list until we broke .

[Scheherazade]

i'll take '74 and '77

Excellent choices!

Wow, what an impressive task! I hope you intended this to be some sort of joint operation with each volunteer reading through his/her part of the list?

Darn! Why didn't I think of the joint operation idea!

[kidvisions]

Starting from next month, I am hoping to read all the Pulitzer winners (fiction) by 2015 (yes, yes... 6 whole years).

If anyone would like to join me, they are more than welcome.

Here is a list of the winners so far:

2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books)

2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Alfred A. Knopf)

2006 March by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)

2005 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar)

2004 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad/ HarperCollins)

2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar)

2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Alfred A. Knopf)

2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Random House)

2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin)

1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin)

1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (Crown)

1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford (Alfred A. Knopf)

1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Viking)

1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Charles Scribner's Sons)

1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (Henry Holt)

1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf)

1991 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike (Alfred A. Knopf)

1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (Farrar)

1989 Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf)

1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison (Alfred A. Knopf)

1987 A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (Alfred A. Knopf)

1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster)

1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (Random House)

1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy (Viking)

1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace)

1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (Knopf)

1981 A Confederacy of Dunces by the late John Kennedy Toole (a
posthumous publication) (Louisiana State U. Press)

1980 The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (Little)

1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (Knopf)

1978 Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (Atlantic Monthly Press)

1977 (No Award)

1976 Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (Viking)

1975 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (McKay)

1974 (No Award)

1973 The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (Random)

1972 Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (Doubleday)

1971 (No Award)

1970 Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Farrar)

1969 House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (Harper)

1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (Random)

1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (Farrar)

1966 Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Harcourt)

1965 The Keepers Of The House by Shirley Ann Grau (Random)

1964 (No Award)

1963 The Reivers by William Faulkner (Random)

1962 The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor (Little)

1961 To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Lippincott)

1960 Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (Doubleday)

1959 The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (Doubleday)

1958 A Death In The Family by the late James Agee (a posthumous publication) (McDowell, Obolensky)

1957 (No Award)

1956 Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (World)

1955 A Fable by William Faulkner (Random)

1954 (No Award)

1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner)

1952 The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk (Doubleday)

1951 The Town by Conrad Richter (Knopf)

1950 The Way West by A. B. Guthrie (Sloane)

1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (Harcourt)

1948 Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener (Macmillan)

1947 All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (Harcourt)

1946 (No Award)

1945 A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (Knopf)

1944 Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin (Harper)

1943 Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair (Viking)

1942 In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow (Harcourt)

1941 (No Award)

1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Viking)

1939 The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Scribner)

1938 The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand (Little)

1937 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Macmillan)

1936 Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis (Harper)

1935 Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson (Simon & Schuster)

1934 Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller (Harper)

1933 The Store by T. S. Stribling (Doubleday)

1932 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (John Day)

1931 Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes (Houghton)

1930 Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge (Houghton)

1929 Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin (Bobbs)

1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (Boni)

1927 Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield (Stokes)

1926 Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (Harcourt)

1925 So Big by Edna Ferber (Doubleday)

1924 The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson (Harper)

1923 One of Ours by Willa Cather (Knopf)

1922 Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday)

1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (Appleton)

1920 (No Award)

1919 The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday)

1918 His Family by Ernest Poole (Macmillan)

1917 (No Award)


I have read only 10 books from this list; all I can is that "Hurray for "No-award years!"

I think it's a geat idea, although I have a little list to finish first, then I'll be more than glad to join you.

[subterranean]

2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar)

I'll see if I can finish this next month

1961 To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Lippincott)

I can re-read. Good I brought it with me from Indonesia.

1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (Boni)

I think I saw this few days ago when I visited the Antiquarian with Chava. I'll come back and see if I actually saw the same book.