Mission Statement

Anything worth reading is worth writing about. And that is what this blog is for.

As you may have heard, NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month encourages people to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I've attempted it (unsuccessfully) twice. I was considering doing it a third time, when I realized how few novels I actually read. This year so far, I've read a grand total of one novel: Lampedusa's The Leopard (which, by the way, is a masterpiece). How can I write fiction if I don't read it?

Around this time, I saw that the 2010 Man Booker Prize had been awarded (to The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson). I looked at this full list of Booker Prize winners, and I realized I had never read any of them. So I decided to read all of them. In chronological order.

First things first: I checked the local library's catalog. They had 38 of the 45 winning titles.

Then I checked the local used book stores. They had two more.

That left five to be purchased online. Luckily, Amazon makes it easy to purchase used books inexpensively.

I'm certainly not going to be able to read all 45 novels in 30 days. But I will read what I can, when I can, and post my impressions here.

So, let NaNoReaMo begin! First up: Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby.