Completism

[Etienne]

Which authors have you sought out everything they've ever written, even if it's not renowned as their best. And if you succeed in reading everything does it give you a feeling of satisfaction, or a lowering feeling that you'll never again have the pleasure of reading something by that author for the first time?

I think I've read everything published by Jane Austen, even her (astonishingly precocious) juvenile epistolary works and that is probably enough for me. But I also am coming to the conclusion that I may have read every single one of the numerous novels that P.G. Wodehouse produced and am not happy about it.

[Gangster Octopus]

Completism

Martin Millar/Scott.

[sw2borshch]

Completism

The nearest for me would probably be Terrance Dicks.

[Incandenza]

Completism

Authors for who it really isn't all that hard: Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace. I've read most of Didion's books.

[Wyatt Earp]

Completism

Austen and Waugh, certainly. I think also Spearmint Rhino's bete noir Howard Jacobson (he's not in Austen and Waugh's league or anything, his stuff just makes me laugh).

Non-fiction-wise: Dawkins. Steven Pinker, I'm pretty sure. Bill Bryson (again, reliably amusing).

I've read a whole slew of Wodehouse, but he was of course astonishingly prolific, so I'm sure there's more knocking about.

[sw2borshch]

Completism

Yer man Wodehouse, I expect I'm going to have to read soon. I keep seeing snippets in newspapers etc. and they tickle me.

[San Bernardhinault]

Completism

Pretty sure I've read everything of JG Ballard's over the years, although I'll have forgotten some, and maybe there were some short stories that I missed because when I was reading they weren't in the compilations.

And, much easier, all of David Mitchell's novels. Getting close to having read all of Murakami and all of Ismael Kadare that's been published in English.

[Guest]

Completism

Tom Wolfe
Richard Price
Hunter S Thompson

And, when I was younger, Stephen King.

[Brandenburger Toro]

Completism

In fiction/literature;

Milan Kundera
Gabriel García Marquez
Haruki Murakami
Ezra Pound (I'm not going to list poets who've got a collected works out)
Flann O'Brien
William Gaddis, nearly.

[Guest]

Completism

Iris Murdoch (fiction only)
Margaret Atwood (ditto)
Simon Raven
about 400 genre novelists, I'm sure

[Wyatt Earp]

Completism

I forgot Flann O'Brien: him too. Indeed, Flann/Myles/George Knowall: the whole published O'Nolan oeuvre, I think. Again including juvenilia.

[Brandenburger Toro]

Completism

Heh. I suspected as I typed that you'd add that one.

Oh, also; JK Rowling. Yes, I've read Tales of Beedle The Bard.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Completism

Dashiel Hammett
Raymond Chandler
Patricia Highsmith
Tom Wolfe (non-fiction)
Michael Holroyd

Kinda lame really.

[mafu]

Completism

nabokov
mark twain

as for wodehouse, if you've read all the novels have a go at the shorter stories if you havent already. some of the golf stuff is great

[WOM]

Completism

Margaret Mitchell
Harper Lee
JD Salinger

(you're holding your sides, aren't you)

[Bill Bones]

Completism

James Kelman. He's remarkably consistent so not really a 'chore'.

R.L Stevenson-only the novels though. The short stories,travel writing and poetry has just never appealed.

[Wyatt Earp]

Completism

Also, GK Chesterton, I'm pretty sure (Don't bother with "The Club oF Queer Trades", but "The Man Who Was Thursday" is a masterpiece). And CS Lewis if we confine ourselves to fiction (I've not read things like "Mere Christianity" all the way through).

(I guess Toro should be pleased about those, but sad they seem to have had so little effect.)

[Wyatt Earp]

Completism

CarnivorousVulgaris wrote:

I'm fairly certain I've every major novel they published ...

"You'll often find me curled up with Spinoza's latest..."

[Wyatt Earp]

Completism

Sorry, I was teasing. The allusion is to talking as if a philosopher wrote novels.

(A Wodehouse reference: Bertie Wooster says something like this to Florence Craye when she runs into him in the bookshop, and ends up nearly marrying the beazel.)

[Amor de Cosmos]

Completism

CarnivorousVulgaris wrote:

George Orwell, Albert Camus and Friedrich Nietzche were my obsessions. I'm fairly certain I've every major novel they published (apart from Nietzche - I think I'm missing The Birth Of Tragedy).

Oddly The Birth of Tragedy is the only book of Nietzche's I've read all the way through and I've done so repeatedly — and a bit obsessively — for several years.

[Sean of the Shed]

Completism

As Wyatt mentioned, Bill Bryson is a very amusing and witty writer. I've taken in all his travel memoirs, and tend to go with this particular genre rather than individual writers. My most recent journey* was along the Congo reading Blood River by Tim Butcher.
The only other writer I've sought out over the years is Simon Sharma.

*Imaginary obviously, I ain't no Henry Stanley.

[Etienne]

Completism

Have the Bryson lovers read his other books, the language ones, and the short history...

I think they are just as good in their way as the travelogues, though I love etymology.

So, no-one's going to answer the supplementary question then...

[Gangster Octopus]

Completism

Hmmm. I was excited after reading the last Thraxas book, because I was looking forward to the next. Then I found out that there wasn't going to be a next. So I was a completist, but not a satisfied one.

Oh, and I finished reading the Flashman series just as Fraser died. The selfish barstard; I needed "closure"...

[Crusoe]

Completism

Made in America is my favourite Bryson book; it was just so joyfully enlightening on language.

[Gangster Octopus]

Completism

I forgot to mention Douglas Adams. Still not sure if I should bother with the new Hitch-hikers book though. Does that count?

Oh, and I thought I'd read all of Pete Davies' books, but it seems I've missed loads of his recent ones. Summat to put in my pile of unread books...