I’ve been thinking about this for a while. It’s nothing ground-breaking, so don’t go getting excited. I’ve decided to read my way through the Hugo Best Novel Award winners. I know it’s been done before. I’m sure it’s been done better than I will do it. I don’t have a new spin or a gimmick to make it interesting because, really, I’m not doing it for anyone but me. The more I read the more I’m aware of holes in my reading and I want to fill in and broaden my knowledge a bit. I also want a project. I do love a project.
So I’m going to do this thing. Without any kind of time limit or pressure. I have only three rules for myself:
- I’m aiming to read all the winners up to around the year 2000 in as near to chronological order as I can (acquisition permitting).
- If something on the list is part of a series I will try to read all of the series (because I wouldn’t be able not to).
- I will ignore the Retro-Hugos, and also the short fiction and novella winners. The latter not because I don’t care, but because I think that getting hold of some of the short fiction and novellas is going to be pretty hard and I don’t want to set myself up to fail.
I will be using Jo Walton’s An Informal History of the Hugos as a rough guide because I loved these posts and the discussions they sparked on tor.com and as I have them all in this handy book format it would be silly not to refer to them when I need to.
I’ve made a page here for this project so I can keep an eye on my progress (I will add links to my posts as I go along). And … that’s all really.
The thing I’m most excited about right at this minute is my kickass banner above. Took me all morning that did. Seriously though, I am pretty stoked to do this … I think I might learn something!
I love your kick ass banner, and I think this is such a cool idea. Can’t wait for updates😊
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*doffs hat and bows low* Why thank you! 😀
I am pretty psyched right at this moment …
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This sounds like a great plan! I hope you enjoy it. I’ve read a lot of these but not because of them being a hugo 🙂 By accident more than anything, hahahahaa.
Oh, watch out for Spin, it’s a real pos….
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Thank you!
pos? Piece of S***… for a guess? Good to know – thank you for the warning! Thankfully, it’s a way down the list …
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You are correct in your interpretation of the acronym 🙂
You might not have an issue with it. I had some serious philosophical issues with it and what the author was going on about. Plus, I thought it was boring 😀
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It’s an interesting idea. For the past decade, I’ve managed to see all the “Picture of the Year” winners before they won. That said, I think I’ve been more impressed with the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or winners. There’s a greater degree of diversity in what can win there.
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Every award seems flawed in one way or another, doesn’t it? I’m sort of looking at this as a jumping off point for a better understanding of what went before … no doubt I’ll come out of it with a longer tbr list than when I went in. 🙂
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Oooh, cool banner and cool idea! I’ve read many of those, but there are still quite a few I haven’t read! Might take an inspiration from you 😀
My all-time favorites were Forever War, Hyperion (for which I’m still due a review, eh), To Say Nothing of the Dog, Lord of Light and A Canticle for Leibowitz. The last two are absolute masterpieces.
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Oooo, I’m glad to get some recommendations going in – thank you! 🙂
I am looking forward to reading some of these classic authors. I’ve read quite a few of the winners from 2000 onwards, but not from before. It’ll be an education! 😀
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Wow, that’s quite a project! I’m totally with you, projects like these can be surprisingly enjoyable since you don’t necessarily have to make the tricky choice of what to read next (I mean, the list is decided!), so this sounds like a great idea. I do wonder though how long it will take to complete without a time limit. 😆
Btw, I appreciate your banner as well! 👍 Time very well invested! 😀
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Oh man, it’s going to take forever, isn’t it!! 😀 But yeah, it’ll be good to have a bit of direction … and I’m quite enjoying hunting down copies of the books. It’s surprising which ones are turning out to be difficult to get. 🙂
(And thank you for the banner love – I feel like I was demanding it, but I do love to make a banner!!)
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This is a great idea, and I like the fact that you’re keeping it low stress. It will also be really cool to see how cultural shifts have influenced the kind of books that win over time!
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Yes! You’ve got it exactly! I am hoping to get a better idea of how SFF has moved with the times … maybe reflected the times. And as a fan-picked award I’m hoping this will be a bit like seeing what we’d have all been reading back then, if we’d been around. 😀
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This is a brilliant project. Would you like company? I always feel I _ought_ to read more of the classics, but I find it very hard to motivate myself to do so. And it’s a bit of a shocker how few I have read.
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I’d love company. 😀 Yeah, I have trouble with motivation, which is partly why I posted this … now I have to do it coz I said I would, you know? 😀
And I’d like to have a better grasp of how SFF has changed over the years.
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Hooray! I’m sure I will do much eye rolling and growling through some of the books, but it will be a fascinating journey 🙂
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Eye-rolling and growling for us both, no doubt! 😀
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What an inspiring challenge! 🙂
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I am hoping it will be so. 😀
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Good luck! That sounds like a fun challenge 🙂
I’ve read a couple of them, but didn’t even know they won awards haha 😀 I go jump to your list right now to read through all the winners
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Thank you – I’m pretty excited about it (I don’t know how long that will last!) 😀
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Fantastic idea. I wish you luck – in fact you won’t need it but the thought is there anyway, and I look forward to your thoughts as you go along.
Lynn 😀
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Thank you, and thank you. 😀
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