Book Award Winners :: How Many Have You Read

How many of these books have you read? List challenges abound on social media from the BBC to BuzzFeed and even PBS. The groups of books are described as best sellers, classics, most loved, etc. but really seem pretty random. No more!

Below is a list of the 241* works of fiction that have won a Pulitzer (since 1918), National Book (since 1935), Man Booker (since 1969) or Women’s Fiction (since 1996) award. Not all are novels – there are nine short story collections and one short story included among the honorees.

This is a list actually worth caring about. I’ve written about trying to read more of these award winners. At this point (May 2019) I’ve read 48, so while nearly 25% isn’t horrible, I have some work to do. (I’d have a much worse showing if it weren’t for my college lit teachers!)

It is an interesting collection. Twenty-two authors have made the list more than once. Saul Bellow tops the list with the most books at four. But William Faulkner, Philip Roth and John Updike all have three. (This does not take into account authors who won multiple awards for the same book.)

So, how many of these books have you read?

The Way West by A. B. Guthrie
May We Be Forgiven by A. M. Homes
Possession by A. S. Byatt
Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson
The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
How to Be Both by Ali Smith
Charming Billy by Alice McDermott
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Line of Beauty by Allan Hollnghurst
Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
Ship Fever and Other Stories by Andrea Barrett
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Milkman by Anna Burns
The Gathering by Anne Enright
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
Larry’s Party by Carol Shields
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The Town by Conrad Richter
The Waters of Kronos by Conrad Richter
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Saville by David Storey
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
I Wish This War Were Over by Diana O’Hehir
White Noise by Don DeLillo
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
World’s Fair by E.L. Doctorow
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories by Ellen Gilchrist
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
March by Geraldine Brooks
Last Orders by Graham Swift
Waiting by Ha Jin
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore
The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Morte d’Urban by J. F. Powers
Troubles by J. G. Farrell
The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell
Life & Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
A Death In The Family by James Agee
Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens
From Here to Eternity by James Jones
How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Collected Stories by Jean Stafford
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Steps by Jerzy Kosinski
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Sea by John Banville
Chimera by John Barth
G. by John Berger
Spartina by John Casey
The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever
Augustus by John Edward Williams
The World According to Garp by John Irving
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Ten North Frederick by John O’Hara
Rabbit At Rest by John Updike
Rabbit is Rich by John Updike
The Centaur by John Updike
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Them by Joyce Carol Oates
Three Junes by Julia Glass
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville
Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Bone People by Keri Hulme
The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Paco’s Story by Larrie Heinemann
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Home by Marilynne Robinson
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Blood Tie by Mary Lee Settle
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
The Power by Naomi Alderman
The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren
The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
Mating by Norman Rush
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Tinkers by Paul Harding
Staying On by Paul Scott
Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Paris Trout by Pete Dexter
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
Redeployment by Phil Klay
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
Sabbath’s Theater by Philip Roth
Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Independence Day by Richard Ford
The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
The Road Home by Rose Tremain
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow
Mr. Sammler’s Planet by Saul Bellow
Herzog by Saul Bellow
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
The Keepers Of The House by Shirley Ann Grau
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
The Friend by Singrid Nunez
Holiday by Stanlely Middleton
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
In America by Susan Sontag
A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams
The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder
Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien
Beloved by Toni Morrison
In a Free State (short story)** by V. S. Naipaul
Property by Valerie Martin
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner
The Reivers by William Faulkner
A Fable by William Faulkner
Collected Stories of William Faulkner by William Faulkner
A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis
J R by William Gaddis
Rites of Passage by William Golding
Ironweed by William Kennedy
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
Europe Central by William Vollmann
Plains Song: For Female Voices by Wright Morris
The Field of Vision by Wright Morris
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
On Beauty by Zadie Smith