Completists' Club discussion

I saw this a as a topic for 2012. I think we need to do the same for the club for 2013. I am new to the CC group, so I will make my mark here in starting a trend... So, not having been a voracious reader for some years, I have decided to accomplish an achievable completionist goal. At my work I am also setting up goals that I will be assessed at the end of the year for my performance - even though it is me who will do the bulk of the assessment then. So likewise for my reading time I want to make it so that by the end of the year I can look back and say "hey! I did it. How great am I!" Ok, usually this doesn't happen, but isn't that the goal of goals? To achieve and have that accomplishment for yourself?

So, who will I read... I will read the works of Richard Brautigan. And I will also make a goal to purchase (the internet sellers will appreciate this), all his available works so I can achieve this. RB is a fun, imaginative, poetic, if not hallucinogenic read that leaves after reading a psychic ghostly residue that is legal, but perhaps shouldn't be.

What are your goals for 2013?

For 2013 I have two starter goals, but not something I can complete (unless I find a really good "stimulants" dealer).

This spring, I'll start reading William T. Vollmann and Anna Kavan.

For Vollmann, I'm going to start with The Ice-Shirt and work through his Seven Dreams series. His canon is large and so I don't expect to complete it any time soon.

For Kavan, I'm going to start with her first two books, A Charmed Circle and Let Me Alone, which she wrote when she still called herself Helen Ferguson. Will skip around her canon after that. Probably not easy to finish her canon due to some books being rare and hard to find, but will read what's available.

Will report back in a few years and let you know how I did, LOL!

I will continue with my Du Maurier obsession, reading two more novels: The House on the Strand and The Scapegoat.
I'll also read more of Winterson's novels...and more I hope of Javier Marias, Quim Monzo also Japanese crime writers...

btw, Michael, and other newbies, welcome to this group! It's gone from being a very active group to an only sporadically active one. But some of us persist with single-author threads, hoping more goodreaders will join us in our author-love!

Nice to meet you.

Jessica wrote: "btw, Michael, and other newbies, welcome to this group! It's gone from being a very active group to an only sporadically active one. But some of us persist with single-author threads, hoping more..."

Thanks Jessica, I like the idea of the group. I was a completionist actually back when I was a child. I remember reading all the Hugh Lofting. I purchased a set of the books for my children but they didn't take to them as much as I did. My son also is a completionist, at the age of 12 - he enjoys the Ranger Apprentice series, by John Flanagan, and probably half a dozen other similar type reads.
And now, with Richard Brautigan, rather easy books, but appropriate for this site, I have purchased most already and they are on their way to me! Most that I have purchased are old worn library copies which tend to impart a sense of age and provide a perspective of the time that has passed since they were published.
Thank you for your welcome and friendliness.

Michael, you should start a thread for Richard Brautigan--. I used to love him, read several of his novels and his poetry, but it's been years. His death some years ago was so sad.

I am not really a group person, but this one appears quite congenial, so I'll give it a try.
I have currently three reading projects going on that would qualify as completionist, namely read the works of Stanley Elkin (two books in so far), John le Carré (five volumes in) and Ali Smith (four books, but one out of order that I'll likely re-read once I get to it) in chronological order. I do not really expect to make it through all of those this year, but it is likely I might add more to the list (having my eye on Vollmann, too, as it happens).

Hello Larou, Elkin is a writer I've read a bit of and Ali Smith is one I'd like to read more of.
and welcome!

Thank you, Jessica! I'm still a bit on the fence about Elkin - he's definitely an interesting writer, but not sure he is a great one. Of course, I've only read his early stuff so far... - Ali Smith on the other hand has become one of my favourite contemporary writers, I can't think of another author whose works combine formal inventiveness with emotional impact.

oh wow, I like the sound of that: formal inventiveness with emotional impact. Must read.

I plan to complete John le Carré too. I'm in no hurry, though. I certainly don't want to do it this year.

I think I'm bad at setting completion plans cause I'd typically rather savor a good author for years than just sprint through the catalogue.

But I'll probably finish all translated Tarjei Vesaas novels in the next few months, nonetheless.

Barth gets completionized some time in the next month or two. Only the last two slim volumes to go.

I don't expect to complete them but I hope to make a significant dent in the 12 Neil M Gunn novels I have sitting around unread. More Saramago, will probably finish Sontag this ear, and possibly James Kelman.

Oop. Missed this thread. I would like to complete the canon of Bill Gass in 2013, if I can get my paws on his out-of-print works, or they find a sympathetic publisher. He's the only author I have a hard-on for at the moment, usually there's only one a year for me (Dickens in 2012).

Edit: Maybe complete Roubaud's translated works English. And Brandao's.

MJ wrote: "Oop. Missed this thread. I would like to complete the canon of Bill Gass in 2013, if I can get my paws on his out-of-print works, or they find a sympathetic publisher. He's the only author I have a..."

I would never have thought of Dickens and Gass as being related--and I guess they only are in that you've fallen hard for both--but I think of them as being so different. Gass more philosophical, metafictional; Dickens descriptive and full of story and character...though certainly also commentary on societal conditions...hmmm.

No, can't see many points of convergence between Gass and Chas. Both are arguably deeply moral writers, arguably in the case of Gass, that is, The Tunnel is a pretty convincing argument for kindness and generosity over festering resentment.

New here. This sounds like fun. My goal is complete John Barth. He has written two of my favorite books of all time (Sot-Weed and Letters) and there are only seven or eight left to go. So, on with the story.

I have almost read all of the (great) Muriel Spark, but sadly, cannot find the remaining works-- but am actively searching. In 2013, I plan to complete the rest of Willa Cather (only a few left, but I almost hate to complete her.) Plus, I am now reading The Old Curiosity Shop by Dickens, which I believe will complete my Dickens journey. It looks to be as magical as the rest.

Welcome, Carla! You have good reading taste ;)

I've not yet fallen under the Dickens spell, but Cather and Spark, yes.

and welcome to James, as well. I think I've read just one Barth...

I definitely like to read authors in spurts....and find even the weaker books of interest, if only to illuminate the stronger. I'll check out a few of the topics.

Carla, do post a thread for Willa Cather, if you feel inclined. I've read a number of her works, but not all. I might get motivated...

Jessica, I see that everyone posting author threads lists every single book, including letters and bios. With Willa Cather, my goodness, that would take e while. I don't typically enjoy biographies of authors, and i never read letters unless the author includes them in an autobiography (as Muriel Spark did.)

oh well, we just copy and paste from Wiki, most of the time. I read bios sometimes, usually only after I've read a good deal of the author's fiction first. The quality varies tremendously, from excellent to embarrassingly bad.

Carla wrote: "Jessica, I see that everyone posting author threads lists every single book, including letters and bios. With Willa Cather, my goodness, that would take e while. I don't typically enjoy biographi..."

Carla--
As Jessica says, many many of the lists here are simple copy n paste. I've included occasionally things like bios and letters in my completionist lists because the author has few books, or because of the status of some of these studies and collections. James Joyce, for example, who has only four major works, was biographicalized by Ellmann whose work is usually taken as on of the better bio's written, and Joyce's letters are voluminous and peculiar. Which is all only to say that the completionist circle drawn around various authors varies from author to author and reader to reader. One of the interesting questions up for grabs in this forum is about what should and what need not count toward our readerly completionism. [only Kafka's includes laundry lists. ; ) ]

Ellman's great, I agree-- I was fortunate enough to attend his lectures. I have a distaste for the picking apart of private lives of authors, though. Dickens was a bad husband, Muriel Spark an unloving mom, and so it goes. My only exception will be P.G. Wodehouse-- his letters, I definitely will purchase! :)

There is no need to read an author's biography or letters to be a completionist. It is a personal preference. I sometimes read about the life of a writer I love, knowing that writers are imperfect human beings and even sometimes despicable in certain ways. I remember being crushed as a young person to learn that my favorite author, Knut Hamsun, was a Nazi sympathizer... Then it followed with Celine. So it goes. Spark had a difficult relationship with her son. I've long learned to separate the author/artist's work from his/her life.

Oh I adored Knut Hamsun as a teenager-- I devoured all of his books, and yes, it was crushing to learn about his Nazi leanings. But it doesn't lessen the achievement.

No, it doesn't, certainly not.

Impressive list of writers, Katheter!

Carla wrote: "Jessica, I see that everyone posting author threads lists every single book, including letters and bios. With Willa Cather, my goodness, that would take e while. I don't typically enjoy biographi..."

For Mishima, I only listed his translated work. I didn't include the three main English language biographies or the book of his letters with Kawabata (which is only available in Japanese and French).

I didn't notice a Mishima thread. He is one of the reasons that I lament my ignorance of Japanese. I would be thrilled to read some translations of his letters to Kawabata...another great great writer.

I now also really want to read some Joanna Russ. Thanks Katheter!

2013, and indeed not too long hence, I'm aiming for completionizing Barth (one to go), A. Theroux (three to go), and Gaddis (finally!). If authors with only two books published count, then I could add Evan Dara.

New to group. I'm looking at: Dickens, Graham GreeneDFW, le Carré, Nabokov, Pynchon. Don DeLillo, and Philip Roth.

I did complete Olen Steinhauer this year, but that isn't like finishing DFW or Roth. I've made significant dents in the others this year, I'm not sure how many I'll finish in 2013, but I want to make progress on all, and at least finish a couple...just not sure which this year.

Hello Rob, I plan to finish Dickens soon -- only a few left, which is sad in a way.

I remember reading an oldish interview with Franzen where someone asked if he had read Dickens, he (Franzen) affirmed he had. The interviewer asked which ones? ... Franzen said simply: ALL.

It was then I decided if a bird-watching, pretty boy like Franzen can read all of Dickens, so can I.

I'm still trying to find the original article, so I might just be making it up.

Rob wrote: "I remember reading an oldish interview with Franzen where someone asked if he had read Dickens, he (Franzen) affirmed he had. The interviewer asked which ones? ... Franzen said simply: ALL. "

Perhaps elsewhere as well, but I heard it on Oprah.

IF it was Oprah, I may have blocked it. I Googled it and anything with Dickens and Franzen in it came back with Oprah's sticker tagging along and the interwebs don't lay lye,lie.

All of Dickens's novels, or the whole published poobah? I hope to complete the Bill Gass canon this year.

MJ, I count an author's novels, short stories and essays as the completed work. I have no interest in reading letters or any unpublished work, as some folks do-- a matter of taste.

Good luck, Carla. That is a lot of material. Do you have a Dickens shelf to which you can direct me?

MJ wrote: "All of Dickens's novels, or the whole published poobah? I hope to complete the Bill Gass canon this year."

MJ, I think I'm going to be/am intellectually lazier than Carla. I will "aim" for all his novels/stories this year ... but I already see myself distracted by finishing Proust's ISoLT ... but I'm not sure my marriage is up for me reading all his essays too in 2013.

I've been reading Dickens since childhood so completing the canon is not that ambitious.

Aiming at completing all the novels of Rikki Ducornet and Ishmael Reed this year. Going to bite down and attempt full completion of William H Gass too.

I'm also new to the group - I suppose I finally have something I want to complete! Not really a specific author, my goal for this year is to read through the whole of the medieval period, starting with Beowulf, then the four major manuscripts, and on, all in translations of course. I decided that I want to experience the beginnings of literature this year.

Yolande wrote: "I'm also new to the group - I suppose I finally have something I want to complete! Not really a specific author, my goal for this year is to read through the whole of the medieval period, starting..."

Sounds like a great project! An interesting book that lists and describes novels from the Ancient Egyptians thru 1600 is by Steve Moore: The Novel: An Alternative History: Beginnings to 1600

This would be an excellent resource for your project. Check it out!

I agree, a great project, Yolande! I've bought the book you suggest, Jim, but haven't read it yet. Maybe I'll start now...why not?

Jessica wrote: "I agree, a great project, Yolande! I've bought the book you suggest, Jim, but haven't read it yet. Maybe I'll start now...why not?"

No time like the present... Nathan recommended this book. In addition to Moore's commentary, this book is an excellent bibliography for fiction lovers. I'm very curious to see the next installment for 1600 to 1800, which is due to be published this fall.

oh wow, I didn't know about that (the next installment).
Yeah, I'm teaching World Literature in the fall at my college, so I think it would be a good resource/background for me. And for other reasons of course too--my own interest in the history of the novel and written literature.