I’ve always been enamored with books, but when I started my PhD, I was worried that I would fall out of the habit of reading for fun. So, I set a goal for myself: read all of the Pulitzer Prize winning fiction novels before I finished my degree.

The Prize for Novel was one of the original Pulitzers. The first was awarded in 1918 and the competition has run annually since, although the category name was changed from Novel to Fiction in 1947. In eight years, no prize was awarded (the last time was in 1977 when the committee passed up Norman MacLean’s A River Runs Through It).

So, in total, there are 93 winning novels as of 2020. A few (8), I had read prior to setting my personal challenge. In the end, it took me 5 years to read all 36,518 pages. Some of my favorites were Ironweed, A Confederacy of Dunces, A Bell for Adano, Middlesex, Arrowsmith, All the Light We Cannot See, So Big, and Laughing Boy. I’ve included my rating for all of the novels below.

I really enjoyed making reading-for-fun an objective challenge. It certainly coerced me to read more. Surprisingly, this challenge not only helped me maintain my reading habit but increased my consumption. Between each Pulitzer, I generally read either a non-fiction book or sci-fi/fantasy novel, which I also track. In the end, I managed to read an average of slightly over 3 books a month. Given the constant reading required for my degree, there is no way I would have read a fraction of those books without adding time for reading to my to-do list for the week.

With this challenge over, I am ready to start another. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed in the Pulitzers for including a fair portion of really boring books (I will NEVER read another John Updike novel in my life). So, for my next challenge, I’ve decided to aggregate rankings from as many “Books to Read Before You Die” lists as possible and read the top 100. I’ll publish a follow up post once I generate that list.

Ratings

Books are arranged by award year within ranks. Here’s the thought process behind my ratings:

5 = I would re-read this book

4 = I would recommend this book

3 = I’m glad I read this book

2 = I would recommend against reading this book

1 = I regret the time I spent reading this book

5

So Big – Ferber (1925)

Arrowsmith – Lewis (1926)

Laughing Boy – La Farge (1930)

The Good Earth – Buck (1932)

The Grapes of Wrath – Steinbeck (1940)

A Bell for Adano – Hersey (1945)

The Old Man and the Sea – Hemingway (1953)

To Kill a Mocking Bird – Lee (1961)

Angle of Repose – Stegner (1972)

A Confederacy of Dunces – Toole (1981)

The Color Purple – Walker  (1983)

Ironweed – Kennedy (1984)

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain – Bulter (1993)

The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier and Clay – Chabon (2001)

Middlesex – Eugenides (2003)

The Road – McCarthy (2007)

All the Light We Cannot See – Doerr (2015)

Empire Falls – Russo (2002)

4

The Bridge of San Luis Rey – Wilder (1928)

Gone with the Wind – Mitchell (1937)

The Yearling – Rawlings (1939)

Dragon’s Teeth – Sinclair (1943)

Tales of the South Pacific – Michener (1948)

The Way West – Gutherie (1950)

The Caine Mutiny – Wouk (1952)

A Death in the Family – Agee (1958)

Advise and Consent – Drury (1960)

The Edge of Sadness – O’Connor (1962)

The Reivers – Faulkner (1963)

The Fixer – Malamud (1967)

The Stories of John Cheever – Cheever (1979)

Foreign Affairs – Lurie (1985)

The Shipping News – Proulx (1994)

Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer – Millhauser (1997)

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao – Diaz (2008)

The Overstory – Powers (2019)

The Nickel Boys – Whitehead (2020)

His Family – Poole (1918)

All the King’s Men – Warren (1947)

The Town – Richter (1951)

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter – Porter (1966)

The Killer Angels – Shaara (1975)

A Thousand Acres – Smiley (1992)

A Visit from the Goon Squad – Egan (2011)

The Goldfinch – Tartt (2014)

Underground Railroad  – Whithead (2017)

3

Alice Adams – Tarkington (1922)

The Able McLaughlins – Wilson (1924)

Early Autumn – Bromfield (1927)

Scarlet Sister Mary – Peterkin (1929)

Years of Grace – Barnes (1931)

The Store – Stribling (1933)

Lamb in His Bosom – Miller (1934)

The Late George Apley – Marquand (1938)

Journey in the Dark – Flavin (1944)

Andersonville – Kantor (1956)

The Travels of Jaimie McPheeterrs – Taylor (1959)

The Keepers of the House – Grau (1965)

The Confession of Nat Turner – Styron (1968)

The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford – Stafford (1970)

Elbow Room – McPherson (1978)

The Executioner’s Song – Mailer (1980)

Lonesome Dove – McMurty (1986)

The Hours – Cunningham (1999)

The Known World – Jones (2004)

Gilead – Robinson (2005)

March – Brooks (2006)

Tinkers – Harding (2010)

Less – Greer (2018)

Now in November – Johnson (1935)

Beloved – Morrison (1988)

Breathing Lessons – Tyler (1989)

Independence Day – Ford (1996)

The Orphan Master’s Son – Johnson (2013)

2

The Magnificent Ambersons – Tarkington (1919)

The Age of Innocence – Wharton (1921)

One of Ours – Cather (1923)

Honey in the Horn – Davis (1936)

In this Our Life – Glasgow (1942)

Guards of Honor – Cozzens (1949)

A Fable – Faulkner (1955)

The Optimist’s Daughter – Welty (1973)

The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love – Hijuelos (1990)

Rabbit at Rest – Updike (1991)

The Stones Diaries – Shields (1995)

American Pastoral – Roth (1998)

The Sympathizers – Nguyen (2016)

1

House Made of Dawn – Momaday (1969)

Humboldt’s Gift – Bellow (1976)

Rabbit is Rich – Updike (1982)

A Summons to Memphis – Taylor (1987)

Interpreter of Maladies – Lahiri (2000)

Olive Kitteridge – Strout (2009)