First, I resolved to do it before I turned 20, and I almost got there. Then I said before I turned 30, but I ended up reading a lot of Rolling Stone and Dr. Seuss that decade. Then I said 40, but I was busy writing books and reading in the contemporary market I was trying to learn about. For the last several years, my excuse is research reading. I have very little time for purely recreational fiction, and I just can't cram that other Rabbit book into my eyeballs and call it recreational. So I have a little over three months to get this done. Wish me luck!
Here's the list, striking what I've read so far:
Here's the list, striking what I've read so far:
2011 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Alfred A.. Knopf)2010 Tinkersby Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press)2009 Olive Kitteridgeby Elizabeth Strout (Random House)2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Waoby Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books)2007 The Roadby 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 Middlesexby Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar)2002 Empire Fallsby Richard Russo (Alfred A. Knopf)2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clayby Michael Chabon (Random House)2000 Interpreter of Maladiesby Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin)1999 The Hoursby Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)1998 American Pastoralby 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 Diariesby Carol Shields (Viking)1994 The Shipping Newsby E. Annie Proulx (Charles Scribner's Sons)1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountainby Robert Olen Butler (Henry Holt)1992 A Thousand Acresby Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf)1991 Rabbit At Restby John Updike (Alfred A. Knopf)1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Loveby Oscar Hijuelos (Farrar)1989 Breathing Lessonsby Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf)1988 Belovedby Toni Morrison (Alfred A. Knopf)1987 A Summons to Memphisby Peter Taylor (Alfred A. Knopf)1986 Lonesome Doveby Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster)
1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (Random House)1984 Ironweedby William Kennedy (Viking)1983 The Color Purpleby Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace)
1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (Knopf)1981 A Confederacy of Duncesby the late John Kennedy Toole (a posthumous publication) (Louisiana State U. Press)1980 The Executioner's Songby 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)Woo hoo! Freebie!
1976 Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (Viking)
1975 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (McKay)1974 (No Award)1973 The Optimist's Daughterby 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 Fixerby Bernard Malamud (Farrar)1966 Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter(Harcourt)1965 The Keepers Of The Houseby Shirley Ann Grau (Random)1964 (No Award)1963 The Reiversby William Faulkner (Random)1962 The Edge of Sadnessby Edwin O'Connor (Little)1961 To Kill A Mockingbirdby Harper Lee (Lippincott)
1960 Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (Doubleday)1959 The Travels of Jaimie McPheetersby Robert Lewis Taylor (Doubleday)1958 A Death In The Familyby the late James Agee (a posthumous publication) (McDowell, Obolensky)1957 (No Award)1956 Andersonvilleby MacKinlay Kantor (World)1955 A Fableby William Faulkner (Random)1954 (No Award)1953 The Old Man and the Seaby Ernest Hemingway (Scribner)1952 The Caine Mutinyby Herman Wouk (Doubleday)1951 The Town by Conrad Richter (Knopf)1950 The Way Westby A. B. Guthrie (Sloane)1949 Guard of Honorby James Gould Cozzens (Harcourt)1948 Tales of the South Pacificby James A. Michener (Macmillan)
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