My Reading Project 2024

As 2023 drags to a close, I’m finishing up my reading project for the year. It’s been an amazing 12 months reading the collected works of Toni Morrison and Kurt Vonnegut in chronological order. If you want a little overview of what I’ve learnt from this project you can read my Irish Times article here. Next year I’ll be reading two more American writers, whose careers overlapped: James Baldwin and Carson McCullers.

The McCullers canon is pretty small and well-defined. I’m hoping to read all her novels, novellas and short stories plus her unfinished autobiography and a few biographies. Baldwin’s canon is a lot larger and more sprawly, encompassing non-fiction, novels, short stories and plays. There’s a lot of duplication across collections. I’ve decided to narrow my reading down to the twenty five texts outlined below alongside some biographies.

If you’d like to read along with me, you can can find my reading list below. I’ll be posting about my reading adventures on social media (Twitter @jancarson7280 Blue Sky @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social and Instagram @jancarsonstories) using the hashtags #MyYearWithJB and #MyYearWithCM Happy reading.

James Baldwin

1.   Go Tell It on the Mountain (1952)

2.   The Amen Corner (1954)

3.   Notes of a Native Son (1955)

4.   Giovanni’s Room (1956)

5.   Sonny’s Blues (1957)

6.   Blues for Mister Charlie (1961)

7.   Nobody Knows My Name (1961)

8.   Another Country (1962)

9.   The Fire Next Time (1963)

10.                 Nothing Personal (1964)

11.                 Going to Meet the Man (1965)

12.                 Jimmy’s Blues (1968)

13.                 Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone (1968)

14.                 One Day When I Was Lost (1969)

15.                 Black Anti Semitism and Jewish Racism (1969)

16.                 Harlem, U.S.A. (1971)

17.                 A Rap on Race (1971)

18.                 No Name in the Street (1972)

19.                 A Dialogue (1973)

20.                 If Beale Street Could Talk (1974)

21.                 Little Man, Little Man (1976)

22.                 The Devil Finds Work (1976)

23.                 Just Above My Head (1978)

24.                 The Price of the Ticket (1985)

25.                 The Evidence of Things Not Seen (1985)

Carson McCullers

1.   The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) 

2.   Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941) 

3.   The Member of the Wedding (1946) 

4.   The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1951) 

5.   The Haunted Boy (1955)

6.   The Square Root of Wonderful (1958) 

7.   Clock Without Hands (1961)

8.   The Mortgaged Heart (1971)

9.   Illumination and Night Glare: The Unfinished Autobiography of Carson McCullers (2002)