Pulitzer Prize and 89 Books Later

In 2012 when I purchased my NOOK reader, one of the first books that I read was Moby Dick (a classic).  Boring!  It was at the conclusion of that novel that I got the inspiration to read every novel listed in the Pulitzer Prize Fiction category.  I was under the impression that surely I would be reading the "best of the best" in fictional literature entertainment.

July 5, 2016 I proudly finished ready every novel listed on that list dating back to 1918 up to the present day winner.  It has been one long journey especially when I ran into the problem that some of the books were out of print and not so easily available.  Over the years though I've kept detail records of the task such as:  There are 89 winners, in 1980 non-winning finalists started being listed, I've read over 37,866 pages on NOOK and printed pages, and I spent $1,090.20 purchasing the entire collection. 

                         

I also kept record of how enjoyable each novel was to read.  I graded the enjoyment of reading on a personal scale from 1-5.  Here's a list of my findings:  5 stars = 25, 4 stars = 19, 3 stars = 10, 2 stars = 16, and 1 star = 19.  To be candid on numerous occasions I could not understand why a particular book was chosen the winner because there were some that were, well...  These were the books that I suffered through reading and prayed that the next novel on the list would redeem the time I spent reading a boring one.

Was it worth spending four years and countless hours of reading?  From every standpoint, beside achieving my goal, the answer is "yes".  Over the years I've read some scintillating prose that informed, educated, and delighted me.  Now all I have to do to stay current is to read each year's winner although some years there is no winner.  Speaking of winner, I just discovered that the 2016 winner is in print.

Enjoy!