2018 ~ The Year of the Back-Catalogue

Inevitably, during the course of any reader’s life we will encounter for the first time authors who are already in the mid-point of their careers. We will, for example, come across a writer, new to us, whose third/fourth/fifth novel has been shortlisted for an award, read that and then, our attention having been caught, go on to automatically acquire new publications as they appear.  But, what about those authors’ back lists?  With so much out there, with so many new books waiting to be read, how do we ever find time to go back and read the early works of writers who have become firm favourites?  This is a dilemma that I have been conscious of for some time now and 2018 is the year I am going to do something, however small, about it.

The perfect example for me is Maggie O’Farrell.  The first novel of hers which I read was in fact her fifth, the Costa Award winning The Hand That First Held Mine. I was bowled over by it and have read every subsequent publication as soon as I possibly could. But what about those four previous books?  Well, last year I did read two of those. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox was selected for the Summer School and I then picked up a copy of her first novel, After You’d Gone, as a result of the initial inkling of disquiet about ignoring writers’ back catalogues at my peril which Esme Lennox provoked. However, amidst the pelthora of new publications and the works which needed reading for book groups, I failed to take the idea any further, even though my disquiet continued to grow.

As I said in my previous post, I don’t like making New Year’s resolutions.  They just beg to be broken.  But, one of the guidelines I have proposed for myself in an attempt to break the stranglehold that crime fiction and re-reads took on the last weeks of 2017 is to schedule at least one book from a favourite author’s back list each month.  To be honest about this, when I look at the number of authors involved, one a month isn’t going to get me very far.  But it’s a start.  Maybe some months I’ll manage two.

But where to begin?  Well, a list of authors might be a good place.  In no way is this meant to be comprehensive but the one’s who come immediately to mind include the aforementioned

• Maggie O’Farrell
• David Mitchell
• Julian Barnes
• A S Byatt
• Penelope Lively
• Jim Crace
• Patrick Gale
• Simon Mawer
• William Boyd
• Kazuo Ishiguro
• Elizabeth Strout
• Richard Russo
• Linda Grant
• Colm Toibin
• Kate Atkinson
• Curtis Sittenfeld
• Emily St John Mandel

and that, as I say, is just those at the forefront of my mind this morning.  There will be many others.

Starting as I mean to go on (always a good idea!) I have already begun David Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten.  However, that very choice throws up another dilemma.  Should my next choice be Number9Dream or am I better off trying a book by a different writer?  The question is particularly pertinent to Mitchell’s writing as my feeling is that there is a strong link between all of his books and it would be interesting to follow that through.  If I leave too long between his novels how easy will that be?  Perhaps visiting his back list every other month might be a solution and gradually bringing myself up-to-date over the course of the whole year.  Yes, I quite like that idea.  I’ll stow it away at the back of my mind and see how it plays out as the months progress.

In the meantime, I am going to transfer my putative list to a separate page on the blog, where I can add to it as other writer’s come to mind and record what progress I make.  And, if anyone else has author’s who would fit into this category for them, please do mention them in the comments.  It may be that they are writers I should be including too.