I’ve decided to trade in one of my New Years Resolutions for this one. I like it much better.
I, Muttrox, declare that by the end of 2008, I will read 10 fiction and 10 non-fiction Pulitzer prize winning books. The lists of winners are here (fiction and non-fiction).
What started this?
I recently read Empire Falls, and just finished The Yiddish Policeman’s Union (by Michael Chabon, who wrote The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay). They’re both fantastic books, as was Guns, Germs, and Steel. I want more of that. I thought about the Nobel prize winners, but they’re so… um… well, foreign. I’ve read a few and liked them, but I don’t want to spend a whole year reading other cultures. I only like to do that once in a while. The Pulitzer prize winners seem closer to my tastes.
Here’s what I’ve read so far:
Fiction
2002: Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2001: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
1981: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
1980: The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer (overrated)
1961: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1953: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
(I also started Beloved by Toni Morrison, but hated it. I read the first of Updike’s Rabbit books and only thought it was so-so.)
Non-Fiction
1998: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
1992: The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power by Daniel Yergin (I didn’t finish reading this, but I still intend to and I did read the incredibly dense follow-up, The Commanding Heights, so I’m giving myself credit)
1988: The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes (very good)
1980: Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter (I’ve read this about thirty times)
1962: The Making of the President 1960 by Theodore White
Hey “Mutt,” good to be here! (lol, you’ve got to give some backstory on that name!)…
Okay, you got me, I was thinking that you meant you had read those books *this year*, as if you hadn’t ever had the chance to read them before in your life. I now comprehend, and lo, light has dawned on Marblehead.
And btw, though I’ve only missed 3 of the Coen’s 12 films that they’ve made, sadly No Country for Old Men is one of them. I do hope to catch that one very soon!
well, it was a finalist for the prize in 1990.
And I know I’m quite mad.
Format is as important as content.
Anyhow, O’Brien’s book is short. You can read it easily in a day.
I really need to go back and read it again. Last time was in grad school.
You are alone, K&K is great stuff the whole way through. You’re quite mad you know! I added the Tim O’Brien to my list. Of course the whole point of this post is that I am going to read Pulitzer Prize books, which is already pushing some other ones out.
Caveat: I actually hate the classic novel as a format. I’ve always felt it was a very forced representation of reality (which, strangely, is why I think comics have such huge potential).
IMHO, the best example of how the novel SHOULD be done is Tim Obrien’s The Things They Carried
I am NOT looking forward to K and K. For me, geek that I am, I was far more interested in reading about the comic making. And I found the last quarter of the book to be, basically, disappointing and dull.
I know I am virtually alone on this.
I can’t see the movie being anything other than a sad little “no one finds the love they need” story.
*shrug*
BTW, go rent Sunshine.
(it looks particularly good on Blu-Ray)
Wow, how awesome. I had no idea. I wonder how Kavalier & Klay will turn out.
Speaking of the coen brothers and Chabon…
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117980719.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
Matt,
Good to have you here, welcome! You misread the post — those are the ones I have read already.
Hudsucker is a great movie! I’ve seen all the Coen brothers comedies, but not all of their crime/suspense ones.
I’m sorry, but I just cannot believe that you have never read either The Old Man and the Sea or To Kill a Mockingbird before taking on this quest. Shame, shame.
And by the way, all this talk of Prize-itzer Pule winners keeps making me think of the movie, The Hudsucker Proxy…and if you haven’t seen THAT, then you definitely have another list of things to do this year: see all of the Coen brothers movies! 😉