Lately I’ve been feeling the urge to immerse myself completely in a writer’s work. Possibly the aftereffects of my most recent Carson McCullers binge, or even the Woolf in Winter event, but I want to comprehensively read an author. Not just the big name novels, the ones that make the best of lists and populate well-stocked bookshelves everywhere, but everything that has been published in their name – novels, short stories, letters – or at the very least everything that I can get my hands on. I’m not sure if I’d want to read everything in chronological order or just slowly work at what I can find. Potential candidates so far are Nathaniel Hawthorne and William Faulkner. Before I jump in the deep end of the classic American literature, I’m starting off by reading all three novels by John Green (A collaborative title with David Levithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, due out in April, so the comprehensive reading will only be temporary, but hey, it’s a start.)
In other news I got a CAVAL card the other day, which means I can borrow from every academic library in Victoria. C’mon, that is exciting news! Every university library in the state! This newly gained access to (probably) the best library facilities in the state will help me with my comprehensive reading goal. Who knows how far I will actually go with this endeavour, but maybe speaking about it in a public forum will be just the motivation I need to stick to it.
Otherwise, I’m really enjoying the Penguin Book of American Short Stories – who would have thought I’d be so taken with and kept awake at night by Nathaniel Hawthorne? Or happily read Herman Melville over lunch? Seems that the random choice from the limited literature section at my school library was a good one. I’m only a few stories in so imagine what further treasures are to be found!
So, until I determine how I’m going to tackle this comprehensive reading project, I’m going to take to curling up and watching the wild weather with some good books.
[image credit: a Library Project poster from 1941, from Work Projects Administration Poster Collection of the Library of Congress.]
This totally made me think of which author’s work I have read all of (wow that is a really awkwardly constructed sentence) and alas, I realised it is only John Green and Rick Riordan off the top of my head – which is a pretty poor effort. If only I had finished Persuasion, I could add Austen to the list and look a bit more ~literary~ haha.
Congrats on the CAVAL card! (haha, I found that quite exciting)
And hope you’re enjoying the rest of John Green