READ - RESPOND - REPEAT

Doing some REAL reading

A while back I looked up the list of United States Poets Laureate just to see, out of curiosity, how many I'd ever read or heard of.  I figured, since I'd excelled in English and Literature in High School and college, that maybe I'd probably had some exposure to a bunch of them.  Little did I know... Literally...

Since the inception of the program in 1938, there have been 51 poets laureate, and my score was a rousing 4 (8%) (if you count Robert Penn Warren twice since he won it twice.)  I was ashamed.

So, I figured I'd look up the Nobel Laureates in Literature.  Those guys were more famous, so certainly I'd do better on that one.  Not really.  Of the 103 Nobel Laureates in the past 110 some-odd years, I'd read or heard of 28 (25%)

So, I moved on to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  Perhaps since those guys were all famous American authors, I'd do better on them.  Of about 87 Pulitzers awarded, I'd heard of about 19 ((22%).

I was triple-shamed.

So I decided to start at the beginning and rectify these apparent lapses in my education.  Starting with The Pulitzer list, I intend to read my way through the past century.  Then I figure to sample my way through the list of Nobel Laureates, followed by the Poets Laureate.

Perhaps just an obsessive streak in me, but I intend to improve on this facet and enjoy doing it!