Read With Me 2022

2021’s reading project went a little off piste. I got two thirds of my way through all the Brian Moores and then sort of ran out of reading steam. I did manage all of Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse novels but they were so dated, sexist and misogynistic I really wish i hadn’t bothered.

This year I’m setting myself two quite achievable reading goals which I know I’m going to enjoy. I’ll be reading all Graham Greene and Virginia Woolf’s fiction in chronological order, (and hopefully sneaking in the odd biography if I have time). I read almost all Greene’s novels as a teenager and absolutely loved them. I’m keen to see how they stand up twenty five years later and I’ll be a little heartbroken if The End of the Affair isn’t as good as I remember. To my shame I’ve only read 4 Virginia Woolf books and two of these were non-fiction so this will be a much overdue journey with a writer whose influence has shaped many of the artists I love the most.

I’m copying the reading lists below if you’d like to read along with list. Greene experts will notice I’ve removed the two out of print and extremely difficult to find early novels because I’m not prepared to pay £150 for a copy of either and I heard they’re not great. I hope this doesn’t offend the completists among you. Thanks to Hannah for my extremely appropriate Virginia Woolf socks which I’ll endeavour to wear whilst reading her novels, (VW wouldn’t have wanted it any other way). So, I actually remember the tags this year, I’ll be tweeting under #MyYearWithGG and #MyYearWithVW

Have a wonderful reading year everyone.

Graham Greene Books:

The Man Within (1929)

· Stamboul Train (1932) (also published as Orient Express)

· It's a Battlefield (1934)

· England Made Me (1935) (also published as The Shipwrecked)

· A Gun for Sale (1936) (also published as This Gun for Hire)

· Brighton Rock (1938)

· The Confidential Agent (1939)

· The Power and the Glory (1940) (also published as The Labyrinthine Ways)

· The Ministry of Fear (1943)

· The Heart of the Matter (1948)