I’ve set myself a 2024 reading challenge! Long-time StuckinaBook readers will remember a few previous times I’ve done ‘A Century of Books’ – reading a book published every year for a century. I started doing 1900-1999, and a few times I’ve just done whatever the previous hundred years is. This year, I’ll be doing 1925-2024.
It’s a fun challenge because you don’t have to think about it much for the first half or so of the year – it just fills up by itself. And then the final months are an intense scramble to find books that fit the remaining spaces…
Of course, anybody is welcome to join in – or to make your own century, or do it over two years etc.
I’ll be filling up the gaps here with links to all my reviews. Wish me luck!
1925: The Chip and the Block by E.M. Delafield
1926: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
1927: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
1928: The Vicar’s Daughter by E.H. Young
1929: Passing by Nella Larsen
1930: Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
1931: The Grasshoppers Come by David Garnett
1932: Gottfried Künstler by Vita Sackville-West
1933: More Women Than Man by Ivy Compton-Burnett
1934: The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning
1935: A Clergyman’s Daughter by George Orwell
1936: The Spring House by Cynthia Asquith
1937: I Would Be Private by Rose Macaulay
1938: Much Dithering by Dorothy Lambert
1939: The Disappearing Duchess by Maud Cairnes
1940: Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather
1941: Death and Mary Dazill by Mary Fitt
1942: Our Hearts Were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough
1943: A Garland of Straw by Sylvia Townsend Warner
1944: The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
1945: Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts
1946
1947: Choose by M. de Momet
1948: Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote
1949: Ashcombe by Cecil Beaton
1950: I Will Hold My House by Marjorie Stewart
1951: The Man on the Pier by Julia Strachey
1952: Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
1953: Landscape in Sunlight by Elizabeth Fair
1954: Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson
1955: The Oracles by Margaret Kennedy
1956: Why I’m Not A Millionaire by Nancy Spain
1957: The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
1958: The Visitors by Mary McMinnies
1959: The Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley
1960: Twice Lost by Phyllis Paul
1961: The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
1962: Sunday by Kay Dick
1963: The Clocks by Agatha Christie
1964: Life With Picasso by Francoise Gilet
1965: Frederica by Georgette Heyer
1966: Everything’s Too Something! by Virginia Graham
1967: A Meeting By The River by Christopher Isherwood
1968: The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks
1969
1970: Trespasses by Paul Bailey
1971: At The Pines by Mollie Panter-Downes
1972: The Art of I. Compton-Burnett ed. Charles Burkhart
1973: The Cheval Glass by Ursula Bloom
1974: Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
1975: A Woman’s Place: 1910-1975 by Ruth Adam
1976: Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
1977: My Darling Villain by Lynne Reid Banks
1978: What’s For Dinner? by James Schuyler
1979: Treasures of Time by Penelope Lively
1980: Basic Black With Pearls by Helen Weinzweig
1981: From Bauhaus to Our House by Tom Wolfe
1982: The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
1983: How To Suppress Women’s Writing by Joanna Russ
1984: The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner
1985: Tentacles of Unreason by Joan Givner
1986: Casualties by Lynne Reid Banks
1987: Strangers by Taichi Yamada
1988: Sweet Desserts by Lucy Ellmann
1989: The Bridesmaid by Ruth Rendell
1990
1991: The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom
1992: Keepers of the Flame by Ian Hamilton
1993: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
1994: Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
1995: Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson
1996: True Stories by Helen Garner
1997: A Song For Summer by Eva Ibbotson
1998: Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
1999: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
2000
2001: Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks
2002: Antwerp by Roberto Bolaño
2003: The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
2004: Joe Cinque’s Consolation by Helen Garner
2005: Rereadings by Anne Fadiman
2006: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
2007: 24 for 3 by Jennie Walker
2008: All Men Are Liars by Alberto Manguel
2009: 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology by Scott Lilienfeld et al
2010: By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham
2011: Consolations of the Forest by Sylvain Tesson
2012: A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver
2013: Struggle Central by Thomas Zuniga
2014: Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
2015: The World Between Two Covers by Ann Morgan
2016: This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell
2017: Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill
2018: Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce
2019: Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
2020: The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
2021: The Audacity by Katherine Ryan
2022: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
2023: Day by Michael Cunningham
2024: A Body Made of Glass by Caroline Crampton
That sounds like so much fun. Also a wonderful way to time travel and observe the subtle changes from one year to the other and larger trends across. Good luck. Will be looking out for your reviews!
That sounds a fun challenge. I will join in as far as is still enjoyable – I think I will struggle to fill the 2000-1024 slots I think, but I’ll keep a record and see how it goes.
That sounds like quite a challenge – very fun, although potentially expensive in my case if I need to plug the gaps!
I once started the 20th century of books (see here) and am still working on it. Some years are harder than others.
Maybe I should just extend it.
Good luck – always think this is such an interesting project!
Have fun!
Your project is tempting…
I’m in! https://thecaptivereader.com/2024/01/03/a-century-of-books-1925-2024/
So, can you cheat and just read a book and plug it into the year, or do you have to try to read a book from every year? That’s about 2/3 of my yearly reading! Yikes! I see, you allowed some latitude by telling us to make up our own century or just do two years. Hmm, I have to think about this. It’s a megachallenge.
OK, I’m in. I think I’m nuts!
I completed A Century of Books in 2018 and it was great fun. I will modify the challenge this time and try to read A Half Century of Books for the 1915-1965 period you suggested. It will be a challenge to me as I also am going to try to not buy many books this year (Project 24?). I’m going to see how far I get reading from my shelves and the library. Last year I read books from 39 of the 50 years in the 1915-65 period so this project looks doable. Good luck!
Good luck! Sounds like a great challenge
What a fun challenge! Good luck with it. (I couldn’t do it since I don’t read 100 books in a year.)
Thanks Emma!
I remember my century of books year with fondness. . My reading rate has slipped too much to attempt this. A fascinating span of years to read through too. Good luck I shall watch your progress with interest.
Thanks Ali!
Oooh this is so fun! I’m actually kind of eager to see the mad scramble, that’s where the magic is and you find books you wouldn’t otherwise have looked at :)
Sadist :D but yes, in previous years that has unearthed some real gems
I’m joining you but ALL women’s writing.Started with Book 1 of The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard.Wonderfully absorbing and I have the other four lined up.Published 1990.I’m also buying second hand A House and It’s Head by Ivy Compton Burnett,August Folly by Angela Thirkell and Bliss by Katherine Mansfield.In between read The Force by Don Winslow🤭
Oh briliant, what a fantastic challenge.
Ha- I tried to do it in 2015 and I’m still doing it – got stuck in the 80s! Have fun!
I ‘cheat’ with a lot of non-fic about earlier periods :D
I am trying to do this one along with you, Simon, but my page tends to have a bunch of books for the same year instead of having them nicely spaced out like yours! I have a feeling you have a huge collection of books on your shelf and you just have to reach out and can immediately find a book for any given year!
I have lots of books on my shelves, but those are the ones I’ve already read. Hmm, may have to start rereading tons of books.
I have a feeling I’m not going to finish my century, but I’m plugging along. I hope you don’t think it’s rude that I have provided my link in case you are interested in looking at how I am doing. https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/about/a-century-of-books-challenge/
(I cheated somewhat and included the books from the end of 2023 if I posted their reviews in 2024. I hope that’s not a horrible thing to do. If you think so, I’ll take them off.)
You can absolutely make your own rules for this challenge, so please do it however works best for you! But yes, you’re right, I have a farcical number of unread books on my shelves so do have options for every year – and will try to read from my shelves as much as possible.