This will be the first part of several posts where we will take a walk through my home library. One of the fun things about having a home library is being able to arrange it anyhow you want, in any order that make sense to your crazy literary obsessed mind.
I have decided to arrange my library according to award winning categories by date awarded. I collect all Pulitzer Prize Fiction, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, PEN/Faulkner Award, and Nobel Prize Fiction winners.
After these award winners, you can then find my collection of signed novels (those that do not fit into any award categories, as well as authors I do not individually collect). Next is an entire wall (thus far) dedicated to the authors I do collect: ranging from Paul Auster to John Updike, which I will go into detail in a later post. On the opposite wall (albeit smaller section) you will find the series (trilogies, etc.) I collect, examples: William S. Burroughs' The Nova Trilogy and The Red Night Trilogy. And finally, on a separate wall-and-a-half lives random fiction as well as nonfiction, to include philosophy, science, religion, history, and sports. I do stray every once in awhile and read nonfiction.
Now let's look at the Pulitzer Price Novels I do own...
I have decided to arrange my library according to award winning categories by date awarded. I collect all Pulitzer Prize Fiction, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, PEN/Faulkner Award, and Nobel Prize Fiction winners.
After these award winners, you can then find my collection of signed novels (those that do not fit into any award categories, as well as authors I do not individually collect). Next is an entire wall (thus far) dedicated to the authors I do collect: ranging from Paul Auster to John Updike, which I will go into detail in a later post. On the opposite wall (albeit smaller section) you will find the series (trilogies, etc.) I collect, examples: William S. Burroughs' The Nova Trilogy and The Red Night Trilogy. And finally, on a separate wall-and-a-half lives random fiction as well as nonfiction, to include philosophy, science, religion, history, and sports. I do stray every once in awhile and read nonfiction.
Now let's look at the Pulitzer Price Novels I do own...
Photo above showcases all of the Pulitzer Prize Novels I own...all First Editions First Printings and several are signed.
There have been a total of 89 Novels that have earned this prestigious award, from Ernest Poole's His Family (1918) to Viet Than Nguyen's The Sympathizer (2016). Authors who have won multiple times: Booth Tarkington (1919, 1922), William Faulkner (1955, 1963), and John Updike (1982, 1991). Pretty good company!
10 times the Pulitzer committee and judges decided not to name a winner for one reason or another. The last time this happened was in 2012 when they did announce the finalists: Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, Karen Russell's Swamplandia, and David Foster Wallace's The Pale King. To note, in these 'gap years' I collect all of the finalists if they were announced.
Out of the 89 novels that were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, I own a total of 68. If you then count the finalists from the years no award was given I own a grand total of 77 Pulitzer Novels.
Here a just a few of the signed ones...
There have been a total of 89 Novels that have earned this prestigious award, from Ernest Poole's His Family (1918) to Viet Than Nguyen's The Sympathizer (2016). Authors who have won multiple times: Booth Tarkington (1919, 1922), William Faulkner (1955, 1963), and John Updike (1982, 1991). Pretty good company!
10 times the Pulitzer committee and judges decided not to name a winner for one reason or another. The last time this happened was in 2012 when they did announce the finalists: Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, Karen Russell's Swamplandia, and David Foster Wallace's The Pale King. To note, in these 'gap years' I collect all of the finalists if they were announced.
Out of the 89 novels that were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, I own a total of 68. If you then count the finalists from the years no award was given I own a grand total of 77 Pulitzer Novels.
Here a just a few of the signed ones...
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  |  Sample of the signed Pulitzer Novels I own. A total of 15 are signed.
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I have read 19 of the Pulitzer Prize Fiction novels thus far. Not pictured are The Grapes of Wrath and To Kill A Mockingbird, since I have not procured the First Printings yet ...
Here is a quick list and rating for each:
His Family by Ernest Poole: ****
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: ***
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee: *****
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron: *****
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara: *****
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole: *****
Independence Day by Richard Ford: ****
The Hours by Michael Cunningham: ****
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri: ****
The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon: *****
Empire Falls by Richard Russo: *****
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson: ***
March by Geraldine Brooks: *****
The Road by Cormac McCarthy: ****
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz: *****
Tinkers by Paul Harding: ***
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson: *****
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson: *****
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: ****
My three favorites: 1) The Confessions of Nat Turner, 2) The Adventures of Kaviler and Clay, and 3) Empire Falls.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: ***
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee: *****
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron: *****
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara: *****
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole: *****
Independence Day by Richard Ford: ****
The Hours by Michael Cunningham: ****
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri: ****
The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon: *****
Empire Falls by Richard Russo: *****
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson: ***
March by Geraldine Brooks: *****
The Road by Cormac McCarthy: ****
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz: *****
Tinkers by Paul Harding: ***
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson: *****
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson: *****
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: ****
My three favorites: 1) The Confessions of Nat Turner, 2) The Adventures of Kaviler and Clay, and 3) Empire Falls.
Which Pulitzer Prize novels have you read?
Which ones do you recommend?
Once again thank you!
Which ones do you recommend?
Once again thank you!
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