{"id":4788,"date":"2010-11-23T09:57:46","date_gmt":"2010-11-23T16:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=4788"},"modified":"2010-11-23T09:57:46","modified_gmt":"2010-11-23T16:57:46","slug":"had-it-with-dumb-facebook-surveys-make-your-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=4788","title":{"rendered":"Had It with Dumb Facebook Surveys? Make Your Own!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Which is exactly what I did.\u00a0 And here it is:<\/p>\n

I was recently tagged with a Facebook survey.\u00a0 The instructions were to go through a list of 50 books, indicating which ones I’d read.\u00a0 The list was a mess: classics mixed with airport trash; books every schoolchild should have read mixed with Oprah-esque book club titles, repetitive entries like “the complete works of Shakespeare” and “Hamlet.”\u00a0 The list, supposedly taken from a BBC survey, looked more like the contents of some anonymous Facebook user’s bookcase.<\/p>\n

I decided to compose some serious surveys for serious readers.\u00a0 This is my first, and it focuses on American literature.\u00a0 Of course, American literature covers a lot of ground: from Hawthorne to Cussler, from detective novels to Harlequin romances, from The Catcher in the Rye to James and the Giant Peach.\u00a0 To give the survey definition and structure, I limited it to National Book Award<\/a> winners from 1950 to 2010: 60 years’ worth of the best American fiction.\u00a0 Unlike the books listed in other Facebook surveys, the books in this survey were not randomly chosen.\u00a0 Each was the subject of a rigorous annual selection process, chosen by panels of readers, authors, and publishers.<\/p>\n

I’m ashamed to say I scored poorly in my own survey.\u00a0 I’ve read only a few of the books on this list, and only know others from watching the movie version.\u00a0 But the books on the list that I have read were all great, and not only great but memorable.\u00a0 Each of them made a lasting impression on me.\u00a0 I guess that explains why they received the National Book Award!\u00a0 If the few I’ve read are any indication of the excellence of other National Book Award winners, then I guess I owe it to myself to read them all!<\/p>\n

Instructions:<\/em> bold the books you’ve read, italicize ones you’ve partially read (or have seen in movie form), add explanatory notes as you see fit.\u00a0 When you’re done, post your list to your Facebook profile page as a note, and tag your literary friends.\u00a0 Don’t forget to tag me back!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Survey: National Book Award Fiction Winners, 1950-2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

1950: The Man with the Golden Arm, by Nelson Algren (movie only)<\/em><\/p>\n

1951: The Collected Stories of William Faulkner, by William Faulkner (have read many individual Faulkner stories, but not this collection)<\/em><\/p>\n

1952: From Here to Eternity, by James Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n

1953: Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison<\/strong><\/p>\n

1954: The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow<\/p>\n

1955: A Fable, by William Faulkner<\/p>\n

1956: Ten North Frederick, by John O\u2019Hara<\/p>\n

1957: The Field of Vision, by Wright Morris<\/p>\n

1958: The Wapshot Chronicle, by John Cheever<\/strong><\/p>\n

1959: The Magic Barrel, by Bernard Malamud<\/p>\n

1960: Goodbye, Columbus, by Philip Roth (movie only)<\/em><\/p>\n

1961: The Waters of Kronos, by Conrad Richter<\/p>\n

1962: The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy<\/p>\n

1963: Morte D\u2019Urban, by J.F. Powers<\/p>\n

1964: The Centaur, by John Updike<\/p>\n

1965: Herzog, by Saul Bellow<\/p>\n

1966: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, by Katherine Anne Porter<\/p>\n

1967: The Fixer, by Bernard Malamud<\/p>\n

1968: The Eighth Day, by Thornton Wilder<\/p>\n

1969: Steps, by Jerzy Kosinksi<\/p>\n

1970: them, by Joyce Carol Oates<\/p>\n

1971: Mr. Sammler\u2019s Planet, by Saul Bellow<\/p>\n

1972: The Complete Stories, by Flannery O\u2019Connor<\/p>\n

1973: Chimera, by John Barth<\/p>\n

1973 (tie): Augustus, by John Williams<\/p>\n

1974: Gravity\u2019s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon<\/strong><\/p>\n

1974 (tie): A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories, by Isaac Bashevis Singer<\/p>\n

1975: Dog Soldiers, by Robert Stone<\/p>\n

1975 (tie): The Hair of Harold Roux, by Thomas Williams<\/p>\n

1976: JR, by William Gaddis<\/p>\n

1977: The Spectator Bird, by Wallace Stegner<\/p>\n

1978: Blood Tie, by Mary Lee Settle<\/p>\n

1979: Going After Cacciato, by Tim O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n

1980: The World According to Garp, by John Irving (movie only)<\/em><\/p>\n

1980 (tie): Sophie\u2019s Choice, by William Styron (movie only)<\/em><\/p>\n

1981: The Stories of John Cheever, by John Cheever (have read many individual Cheever stories, but not this collection)<\/em><\/p>\n

1981 (tie): Plains Song, by Wright Morris<\/p>\n

1982: So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell<\/p>\n

1982 (tie): Rabbit Is Rich, by John Updike (have read Rabbit, Run, but not the rest)<\/em><\/p>\n

1983:The Color Purple, by Alice Walker<\/strong><\/p>\n

1983 (tie): The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, by Eudora Welty<\/p>\n

1984: Victory Over Japan,\u00a0 Ellen Gilchrist<\/p>\n

1985: White Noise, by Don DeLillo<\/p>\n

1986: World\u2019s Fair, by E.L. Doctorow<\/p>\n

1987: Paco’s Story, by Larry Heinemann<\/p>\n

1988: Paris Trout, by Pete Dexter<\/strong><\/p>\n

1989: Spartina, by John Casey<\/p>\n

1990: Middle Passage, by Charles Johnson<\/p>\n

1991: Mating, by Norman Rush<\/p>\n

1992: All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy<\/p>\n

1993: The Shipping News, by E. Annie Proulx<\/p>\n

1994: A Frolic of His Own, by William Gaddis<\/p>\n

1995: Sabbath’s Theater, by Philip Roth<\/p>\n

1996: Ship Fever and Other Stories, by Andrea Barrett<\/p>\n

1997: Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier<\/strong><\/p>\n

1998: Charming Billy. by Alice McDermott<\/p>\n

1999: Waiting, by Ha Jin<\/p>\n

2000: In America, by Susan Sontag<\/p>\n

2001: The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen (I have this book but haven’t read it yet)<\/em><\/p>\n

2002: Three Junes, by Julia Glass<\/p>\n

2003: The Great Fire, by Shirley Hazzard<\/p>\n

2004: The News From Paraguay, by Lily Tuck<\/p>\n

2005: Europe Central, by William T. Vollmann<\/p>\n

2006: The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers<\/p>\n

2007: Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n

2008: Shadow Country, by Peter Matthiessen<\/p>\n

2009: Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann<\/p>\n

2010: Lord of Misrule, by Jaimy Gordon??<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Which is exactly what I did.\u00a0 And here it is: I was recently tagged with a Facebook survey.\u00a0 The instructions were to go through a list of 50 books, indicating which ones I’d read.\u00a0 The list was a mess: classics mixed with airport trash; books every schoolchild should have read mixed with Oprah-esque book club […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,6,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memes","category-a-series-of-tubes","category-words"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4788"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4792,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788\/revisions\/4792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}