Thanks to you, my TBR is now really a tracker of reaching completionist status for the authors I love. This year I completed all of Constance Debre, Aysegul Savas and Claire-Louise Bennett! I don't have my journal with me so I know I will miss someone, but right now I am working my way through Erpenbeck (thanks to you), Deborah Levy (thanks to Kate Jones), Elena Ferrante (thanks to Laurel!!!), Katie Kitamura (I need to read her first book), Annie Ernaux and Nicole Krauss - who wrote my most favorite book of all time The Great House.
huge completionist accomplishments in this year's reading!! congrats, petya! need to get CLB on my list (as we've discussed) and Nicole Krauss is another name I've been curious about! I've read Kitamura's two newest and have been meaning to grab a copy of A Separation, although I just recently learned that she has two early novels I somehow missed completely?! Have you heard of The Longshot and Gone to the Forest, from 2009 and 2012? total blind spot for me I just recently uncovered!
Amazing tracking system! I’m impressed, I only have a BoB to track what I read. I think i’m a completionist for contemporary writers I like (like Claire-Louise Bennett, Cusk, Sayaka Murata, Banana Yoshimoto and other translated Japanese lit, Aysegul Savas, etc). For my most favorite writers (who happen to have written a lot of novels, like Muriel Spark or Iris Murdoch), i’m a slow completionist, I like the idea that I can always pick up a new novel by them, so I tend to re-read and pirouette in place a lot before passing to a new one.
Thanks, Cy! & I have to ask what a BoB is? I definitely know a few slow completionists like you (love that term), and I can completely understand the strangeness of knowing that an author who's passed will never write another book, that their oeuvre is static... but I remain amazed by the way a book I'm rereading can feel so new at a new time in life !
Oops sorry, it’s a book of books, just a notebook with a reading list :) And yes, I agree, over the years re-reading became one of my favorite kinds of reading!
i did a proper goodreads export > sort by author > highlight duplicates to get an accurate count. we overlap on both n.k. jemisin and rachel cusk. BUT this reminded me to both pick up one of the books i'm missing from jane austen and return to some of my 'cusp' authors.
I just saw that you are a Cusk completionist!!! That's amazing! I read her obsessively for a while and then needed a break but I have been really itching to read more of her. I have Parade and Arlington Park at home ...
i love everything i’ve read by her but i haven’t read parade yet, i think some varied reviews at the time put it off my radar…. i should make my own opinion!
woohoo! the goodreads export is genius. Love the NK Jemisin and Cusk overlap-- I'm wondering what Jemisin is up to recently? I just did a very quick google and didn't find anything after the second in her Great Cities duology in 22... will be keeping my eyes out?! enjoy the Austen!!
This year I became a Jane Austen completionist and that's what I'm most proud of. I am with you on reading more Katie Kitamura, Claire Keegan, and Jenny Erpenbeck. I've read all three Halle Butler novels and recommend. I'm also a Robert Caro completionist.
From my story graph stats I'm over 5 in the following: William Faulkner, Joan Didion, Herman Hesse, Francine Prose, Elena Ferrante, Anne Sexton, James Salter, and William Shakespeare.
Caro completionism is no joke!!! Congrats there! Francine Prose and James Salter have been on my radar for ages, I'll have to pick them up soon. And will check out Halle Butler! Do you recommend any of her three in particular to start with?
Love the sweet bookclub shout out Regan - I can't wait for you to come in the summer either! I need to read Venturini's other book and join you as being a completionist bc Cousins was so weird I need more. Also 2026 is clearly the year we might trade places on Knausgaard bc I want to read his non fiction and you his fiction!!
I truly can't be arsed to make a list myself but I love love reading yours xx
the great Knausgaard genre-swap of 2026 !! Cousins was weird and wild, and 'We, the Casertas' is too, but a little more in the direction of the gothic/surreal/fairytale imo, less all-out nuts-- I was a very big fan of both, maybe Cousins slightly more! I'm eager for more by her to keep making their way into english (fingers crossed, anyway!)
What’s your favorite Hemingway? I ‘ve read his The Sun Also Rises last year and I’ve been wanting to read more of his like A Moveable Feast, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and A Farewell to Arms.
Book Lovers and Funny Story are the only book of Emily Henry’s that I loved. The others, I couldn’t tolerate it. I’ve read Book Lovers is getting a movie adaptation!
great question, I loved A Farewell to Arms (the first one I read back in high school!) and A Moveable Feast - either would be great to read next! I haven't read For Whom the Bell Tolls yet. It's so hard to pick, but The Garden of Eden might be my favorite, but maybe just because I've read it so recently... it's a lesser-known one than the others you mention. I also really liked his story collection, The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Interesting question! Like you I’m definitely a completionist for Kazuo Ishiguro. Other authors that come to mind are Dorothy Sayers and Vikram Seth (the latter I thought I’d read absolutely everything he’d written but recently found some children’s verse that I immediately purchased).
Thanks to you, my TBR is now really a tracker of reaching completionist status for the authors I love. This year I completed all of Constance Debre, Aysegul Savas and Claire-Louise Bennett! I don't have my journal with me so I know I will miss someone, but right now I am working my way through Erpenbeck (thanks to you), Deborah Levy (thanks to Kate Jones), Elena Ferrante (thanks to Laurel!!!), Katie Kitamura (I need to read her first book), Annie Ernaux and Nicole Krauss - who wrote my most favorite book of all time The Great House.
huge completionist accomplishments in this year's reading!! congrats, petya! need to get CLB on my list (as we've discussed) and Nicole Krauss is another name I've been curious about! I've read Kitamura's two newest and have been meaning to grab a copy of A Separation, although I just recently learned that she has two early novels I somehow missed completely?! Have you heard of The Longshot and Gone to the Forest, from 2009 and 2012? total blind spot for me I just recently uncovered!
Amazing tracking system! I’m impressed, I only have a BoB to track what I read. I think i’m a completionist for contemporary writers I like (like Claire-Louise Bennett, Cusk, Sayaka Murata, Banana Yoshimoto and other translated Japanese lit, Aysegul Savas, etc). For my most favorite writers (who happen to have written a lot of novels, like Muriel Spark or Iris Murdoch), i’m a slow completionist, I like the idea that I can always pick up a new novel by them, so I tend to re-read and pirouette in place a lot before passing to a new one.
Thanks, Cy! & I have to ask what a BoB is? I definitely know a few slow completionists like you (love that term), and I can completely understand the strangeness of knowing that an author who's passed will never write another book, that their oeuvre is static... but I remain amazed by the way a book I'm rereading can feel so new at a new time in life !
Oops sorry, it’s a book of books, just a notebook with a reading list :) And yes, I agree, over the years re-reading became one of my favorite kinds of reading!
i did a proper goodreads export > sort by author > highlight duplicates to get an accurate count. we overlap on both n.k. jemisin and rachel cusk. BUT this reminded me to both pick up one of the books i'm missing from jane austen and return to some of my 'cusp' authors.
I just saw that you are a Cusk completionist!!! That's amazing! I read her obsessively for a while and then needed a break but I have been really itching to read more of her. I have Parade and Arlington Park at home ...
i love everything i’ve read by her but i haven’t read parade yet, i think some varied reviews at the time put it off my radar…. i should make my own opinion!
woohoo! the goodreads export is genius. Love the NK Jemisin and Cusk overlap-- I'm wondering what Jemisin is up to recently? I just did a very quick google and didn't find anything after the second in her Great Cities duology in 22... will be keeping my eyes out?! enjoy the Austen!!
OK, I'm going to need to do some analysis on my own reading and the authors I'm approaching completionist status for! Thank you for the prompt. 💕
This is such an incredible way of choosing what to read next. Taking inspo for next month!!
Can’t wait to see how it goes for you!!
This year I became a Jane Austen completionist and that's what I'm most proud of. I am with you on reading more Katie Kitamura, Claire Keegan, and Jenny Erpenbeck. I've read all three Halle Butler novels and recommend. I'm also a Robert Caro completionist.
From my story graph stats I'm over 5 in the following: William Faulkner, Joan Didion, Herman Hesse, Francine Prose, Elena Ferrante, Anne Sexton, James Salter, and William Shakespeare.
Caro completionism is no joke!!! Congrats there! Francine Prose and James Salter have been on my radar for ages, I'll have to pick them up soon. And will check out Halle Butler! Do you recommend any of her three in particular to start with?
Thanks Caro took most of adult reading life. Actually we celebrated our first wedding anniversary by going to his book talk/signing - that’s love.
For Butler, I recommend reading Jillian first. It’s Butler’s first and if not the best then the most fun and funny.
Love the sweet bookclub shout out Regan - I can't wait for you to come in the summer either! I need to read Venturini's other book and join you as being a completionist bc Cousins was so weird I need more. Also 2026 is clearly the year we might trade places on Knausgaard bc I want to read his non fiction and you his fiction!!
I truly can't be arsed to make a list myself but I love love reading yours xx
the great Knausgaard genre-swap of 2026 !! Cousins was weird and wild, and 'We, the Casertas' is too, but a little more in the direction of the gothic/surreal/fairytale imo, less all-out nuts-- I was a very big fan of both, maybe Cousins slightly more! I'm eager for more by her to keep making their way into english (fingers crossed, anyway!)
What’s your favorite Hemingway? I ‘ve read his The Sun Also Rises last year and I’ve been wanting to read more of his like A Moveable Feast, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and A Farewell to Arms.
Book Lovers and Funny Story are the only book of Emily Henry’s that I loved. The others, I couldn’t tolerate it. I’ve read Book Lovers is getting a movie adaptation!
great question, I loved A Farewell to Arms (the first one I read back in high school!) and A Moveable Feast - either would be great to read next! I haven't read For Whom the Bell Tolls yet. It's so hard to pick, but The Garden of Eden might be my favorite, but maybe just because I've read it so recently... it's a lesser-known one than the others you mention. I also really liked his story collection, The Snows of Kilimanjaro
thank you! I will keep all these in mind.
Interesting question! Like you I’m definitely a completionist for Kazuo Ishiguro. Other authors that come to mind are Dorothy Sayers and Vikram Seth (the latter I thought I’d read absolutely everything he’d written but recently found some children’s verse that I immediately purchased).
Dorothy Sayers and Vikram Seth are both new to me! Thanks for the introduction, I'll have to check them out