Friday, October 16, 2009

State of the Blog, Part Two: The Authors

This is the second part of my two-part autumnal assessment of my 2009 reading progress. The first part tallied up the total of books I have read so far in 2009 from the lists in the right column. This post looks at progress on my author lists.

THE AUTHORS

Kingsley Amis
Books read so far: 4/48
Books read in 2009: one (The Alteration)
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

Cara Black
Books read so far: 2/9
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: one

James Lee Burke
Books read so far: 13/17 (Dave Robicheaux series only)
Books read in 2009: 3
  1. Black Cherry Blues
  2. Pegasus Descending
  3. The Tin Roof Blowdown (reviewed here)
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Lee Child

Books read so far: 11/11 (unless he has a new one)
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

M. F. K. Fisher
Books read so far: 4/27
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: 4

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Books read so far: 8/13
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Penelope Fitzgerald
Books read so far: 2/9
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: one

Richard Ford
Books read so far: 5/10
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Jim Harrison

Books read so far: 19/19 (prose only)
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Nick Hornby
Books read so far: 2/11
Books read in 2009: one (High Fidelity, reviewed here)
Books on my TBR shelf: 2

John Lescroart
Books read so far: 16/18 (Dismus Hardy series and spin offs)
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: one

Elinor Lipman
Books read so far: 2/10
Books read in 2009: one (My Latest Grievance, reviewed here)
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

David Lodge

Books read so far: 2/15 (fiction only)
Books read in 2009: one (Changing Places, reviewed here)
Books on my TBR shelf: 7

Ian McEwan

Books read so far: 5/13
Books read in 2009: 2
  1. The Innocent(reviewed here)
  2. Saturday
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Anthony Powell
Books read so far: 13/32
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: one

Philip Roth

Books read so far: 8/30
Books read in 2009: one (Goodbye, Columbus: And Five Other Short Stories, reviewed here)
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

Martin Cruz Smith
Books read so far: 6/6 (Arkady Renko series only)
Books read in 2009: 2
  1. Red Square, reviewed here
  2. Stalin's Ghost
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Julia Spencer-Fleming
Books read so far: 5/7
Books read in 2009: 3
  1. Out of the Deep I Cry
  2. To Darkness and to Death (reviewed here)
  3. All Mortal Flesh (reviewed here)
Books on my TBR shelf: one

William Styron
Books read so far: 2/10
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Anne Tyler
Books read so far: 4/18
Books read in 2009: one (The Amateur Marriage)
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

John Updike
Books read so far: 8/26
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: 9

Andrea U'ren
Books read so far: zero/2
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Simon Winchester
Books read so far: 5/16
Books read in 2009: zero
Books on my TBR shelf: one
.

3 comments:

  1. I loved Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman and have the San Fran earthquake book around the house. I need to read more by him. And I have 3 Nick Hornbys in my TBR pile ... not to mention looking at buying the new book.

    I like that you have a brief(ish) author list. I could use that sort of focus.

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  2. I'm wondering: if an author's writing language isn't English and not all of his/her books are translated into English, what will the list look like? Will you include those works into the lists of books-to-read or will they seemingly not exist? This doesn't appear to be an issue with this specific list but I may adopt similar list-making tactics to organize my reading and I'm curious to know how you would tackle a translation issue.

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  3. Kristen -- Professor and the Madman was the first Winchester book I read and the one that got me hooked. The earthquake books ended up being more of a geology book than a San Francisco book, but it was still interesting. Have fun with it. And the Hornby books!

    Child -- If I ever get around to adding non-English authors, which I will one of these days, I plan to list all the works, but note if a book is not (yet) available in an English translation. That method appeals to my compulsive need to keep complete track, but gives me an excuse for not finishing. :)

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