Pulitzer Reading Challenge

[bouquin]

I have just finished reading William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner (1968 winner).

[sixsmith]

I have started reading American Pastoral,

Hey, let me know what you think. One of my favourite novels

[kelby_lake]

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.

I read 2 of the Pulitzer Prize novels but probably more of the drama ones

[Scheherazade]

I have just finished reading William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner (1968 winner).

Would you like to post a review?

Hey, let me know what you think. One of my favourite novels

Will probably post a review. I am half-way through. So far I have mixed feelings because reading about American history (20th century) is beginning to bore me a little.

However, Roth's writing style is very good.

[Don Quixote Jr]

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.

I'm a pretty prolific (and fast) reader, but this project is too mammoth even for me! Seeing all of the Pulitzer Prize Winners may inspire me to read some of them, especially The Magnificent Ambersons, The Color Purple & others that were made into movies I like. I'm also interested in checking out the works of well-known & respected writers I'm unfamiliar or barely familiar with such as Cheever, Mailer & Updike.
I'm kinda curious Scheherazade - will you force yourself to read EVERY single book, even the ones you can't stand? I'm asking because I tried reading the 2001 winner on a friend's advice & couldn't get through it. It's hard for me to imagine anyone liking every single book on this list!
Anyways, good luck and thanks for posting a very interesting booklist!

[Scheherazade]

I'm kinda curious Scheherazade - will you force yourself to read EVERY single book, even the ones you can't stand? I'm asking because I tried reading the 2001 winner on a friend's advice & couldn't get through it. It's hard for me to imagine anyone liking every single book on this list!
Anyways, good luck and thanks for posting a very interesting booklist!

Probably I will try to read every book on the list... I very rarely give up on a book... I don't expect to like every single book in the list but how do I know whether I like them or not unless I have read them?



I will give it a go... Let's see.

[kasie]

Inspired by your dedication, Scher, and, like you, feeling a certain lack of reading experience in American authors, I thought I would also begin reading titles from the list. I had already read eight titles and now have just finished The Colour Purple and The Age of Innocence - enjoyed both immensely and will be returning to the list from time to time. Thanks for the pointer.

[Scheherazade]

Inspired by your dedication, Scher, and, like you, feeling a certain lack of reading experience in American authors, I thought I would also begin reading titles from the list. I had already read eight titles and now have just finished The Colour Purple and The Age of Innocence - enjoyed both immensely and will be returning to the list from time to time. Thanks for the pointer.

I really enjoyed those two books as well, Kasie.

You might find this thread interesting as well

http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=43502

[Don Quixote Jr]

Probably I will try to read every book on the list... I very rarely give up on a book... I don't expect to like every single book in the list but how do I know whether I like them or not unless I have read them? I will give it a go... Let's see.

Well, to be more specific, I meant would you continue to read a book after totally hating it (or lets say being totally bored by it) after 100-200pp?

[Scheherazade]

Well, to be more specific, I meant would you continue to read a book after totally hating it (or lets say being totally bored by it) after 100-200pp?

Yes, I probably would. I usually do read and finish a book even though I am bored with it (though there are couple of exceptions in my reading past).

[Uberzensch]

I'm asking because I tried reading the 2001 winner on a friend's advice & couldn't get through it.

I was wondering when someone would talk about Kavalier and Clay and amazed it wasn't positive. I urge everyone to give this book a chance. It's fantastic!

[kasie]

Scherherazade - thanks for the link - I'm not much of a one for awarding grades, too much like returning to a Past Life and marking homework! But I notice high gradings for The Hours - can't remember being that impressed by it but it is still downstairs on the Maybe I'll Read This Again shelf, so I will give it another go and remind myself of it.

Uberzensch - I have Kavalier and Clay on the To Be Read shelf, so will make a start on it and answer your comment later, if I may?

[Scheherazade]

An update on my list:

2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar)

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

1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin)

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

1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace)

1961 To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Lippincott)

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

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

1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Viking)

1937 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Macmillan)

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

1930 Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge (Houghton)

1922 Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday)

1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (Appleton)


Don't forget to visit the Rating thread!

http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=43502

[kasie]

I am about a third of the way through Kavalier and Clay and am enjoying it so far, though have not had a lot of time for reading lately. I like the fast pace of the narrative, the way it reflects the comic book subject, then the contrast when one of the characters becomes introspective and style becomes slower and convoluted, as his thoughts evolve and meander.

[Scheherazade]

Please post a review when you are done, Kasie, because I have no idea that book is about. I read American Pastoral, towards which I have some confused feelings. Mostly I found it a drag but the last 100 pages might have just saved it for me.

Now, I am onto The Stone Diaries but I have less than one month to hand in my assignments for this term so I will have to put my pleasure reading aside for a while :-/