Completists' Club discussion

I suppose it is time to start thinking of the upcoming year?

I still have Stanley Elkin and Ali Smith and John le Carré left to complete, not even to mention William T. Vollmann. Which of course is not going to stop me from adding yet another author with an impressive backlist, namely António Lobo Antunes who I've discovered recently and who is very fast on his way to becoming a favourite author. I'm firmly planning all of his twenty-novels as well as the three books of his Chronicles which have been translated into German so far. Eventually. (Probably more likely around 2020 than 2016, but... baby steps.)

I too will be reading a lot of Stanley Elkin but my list for next year already contains over 200 books, mostly all from different authors, and I wont even make it through all of them...so I think 2016 is going to be a very fragmented year of reading for me!

Same as the past two years, I intend to Completionize McElroy in '16. And again Gass. [making my technical Pynchon Completionism honest with an M&D (re)read]. Those will Completionize my Familienähnlichkeiten completionization goal (unless I discover I like Powers more than I did his Gold Bug which was good but not quite there). Then I've got ::
Zadie Smith (only Autographman)
Mary Caponegro -- a short oeuvre, but worth it
Arno Schmidt -- It's possible to completionize him in a pre-ZT manner ; just one Dalkey of novellas and his Abend mit Goldrand
Carole Maso
Raymond Federman == I've taken credit for Completionization, but little things always seem to pop up, so I'll try to keep up with that stuff.
James Joyce (?) -- this might be too much because it involves three volumes of his letters.
Amos Tutuola
And I'll probably find a few Latin American's whose translated work I'll completionize, like very likely Guillermo Cabrera Infante ; or just all of Suzanne Jill Levine's closelaberations.

oh yes right! I need to steer back to the Elkin madness again too! Slow road to completionization, but I might end up in his maelstrom.

Oh god, just realized it is the IJ 20th anniversary next year so I should probably actually try to get round to reading that bloody book as well.

I can't believe this thread is here this morning! I literally woke up thinking about my 2016 Completionist goal. I finished my 8th Trollope of the year last night, so 2015 goal met. That leaves 21 novels unread, and halving that would be *very* ambitious. We'll see what 2016 brings!

I'll be working through Murakami's works next year. This year I read After Dark and loved it; it was my first Murakami.

Still working on Umberto Eco but have started on Peter Ackroyd too. I am in a metaphysical state of mind (stolen from Billy Joel).

I'm completely new here.... and haven't given this much thought... but I intend to read all of Edgar Allen Poe's works this year....
and I'm reading all of Dickens works in chronological order...next up is Nicholas Nickleby,
Also reading Trollope... but I'm only at #4...next up Framley Parsonage.
Also want to work on all Twain work's, E.F. Benson and Armistead Maupin.

Ed wrote: "I'm completely new here.... and haven't given this much thought...

Excellent, Ed! Seems like you are well on your way.

My focus in 2016 will be moving closer towards completing my two favourite Williams - William Shakespeare and William Faulkner. I have a few plays done but not nearly enough to make a dent. Of Faulkner I've so far only read "The Sound and Fury". Next up is "As I Lay Dying."

Yolande, As I Lay Dying is one of my all-time faves! You'll love it :)

Yolande, As I Lay Dying is one of my all-time faves! You'll love it :)

I'm currently reading the second book in Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy. I was thinking I might add him to my completionist goal.

If I receive some type of death sentence, either from the legal apparatus or a physician, I will set in motion completion projects. Bellow would take precedence. In the absence of preparing for death, I will just continue to peck away, slowly, at the usual suspects, always leaving one or more works for the distant future so as not to use up all the good stuff.

It has long been my intention, but never my action, to read the Complete Works of everyone's favorite and oft quoted Billy Shakes.

Given that I will probably drop out of the Year of Proust in another book club, and my busy year in college [sophomore year, here I come!] reading plays seems like a good diversion, not to mention highly educational since, as aforementioned, Shakespeare is quoted adfuckingnauseum.

I'm seriously considering Charles Dickens (just the novels,) but kind of intimidated.

From my experience with Our Mutual Friend, Dickens is a lot more bark than bite :) For the thickness of his books, I mean, he makes it quite worthwhile: at worst a little confusing and weird, but often he's quite the page turner.
I highly recommend OMF, myself.

Vrixton wrote: "From my experience with Our Mutual Friend, Dickens is a lot more bark than bite :) For the thickness of his books, I mean, he makes it quite worthwhile: at worst a little confusing and..."

That is one of my favorites.

I had a pretty bad experience with Copperfield recently that makes me fear getting stuck in another brick of a Dickens novel again.

Loved everything else I've ever read of his, though, and looking at the bigger picture Dickens is totally doable in about a year at the leisurely rate of one novel every month.

OMF sounds so good. All his anti-capitalist satires do.