I’m going to tell you my little secret. It’s a dirty little secret that only my husband knows. I’m so ashamed to say it. Last year, I only read two books. TWO. And one of those books was What to Expect When You’re Expecting and the other was Double Cross by James Patterson. It’s embarrassing. Ridiculous. Shameful. Humiliating. For those of you who don’t know me personally, I’m making this confession because I have a bachelor’s degree in English. Not only that, I have a master’s degree in British and American literature. Something has to be done. Something drastic.
At first I thought about pulling out my master’s exam list and reading my way through the books I should have read in graduate school. Unfortunately, I cannot bring myself to read Jane Eyre or Frankenstein for the hundredth time. So I decided on something a little more manageable. A little more…already organized for me.
Goal: Read all 77 National Book Award fiction winners. What better way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the National Book Award? The National Book Foundation did blog about each of the books http://www.nbafictionblog.org/ (so a great resource as I go through them).
Timeline: 18 months (roughly 4 books per month)
Challenge: To all of you readers out there. Check out the fiction blog for the list of past winners.
I’m beginning with the first book to ever win the award – Nelson Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm
READY, SET, GO!
I have read “The Shipping News” (1993 winner) – have the paperback, if you want to borrow it 🙂
I would like to borrrow it. It will be a while until I get there. I need to renew my library card because this goal may be a little expensive.