The Awesome Author Challenge 2010

Alyce of At Home With Books is hosting The Awesome Author Challenge in 2010. As she explains:

The idea behind this challenge is to read works by authors who have been recommended to you time and again, yet somehow you haven't managed to read any books by those authors. These are the authors that everyone else tells you are awesome, thus the "Awesome Author Challenge" title.

The challenge runs from January through December, and there are four levels of participation to choose from:

• Easy: Choose three authors and read at least one title from each author.
• Moderate: Choose six authors and read at least one title from each author.
• Challenging: Choose ten authors and read at least one title from each author.
• Over-Achieving: Anything over ten authors.

This is really the kind of challenge I love - there aren't too many rules and regs. Crossovers with other challenges are allowed. You don't have to make a list ahead of time if you don't want to; but if you do, the list can change at any time. And your books can be from any genre or reading level: "the only requirement is that you have heard great things about the author, but haven't yet read any of their works."

I've promised myself to be a little more selective about my reading challenges for next year, but this one is just too tempting to pass up. And since the challenge runs all year, I'm throwing caution to the wind and choosing ten authors to try. The only problem is deciding on exactly which ten authors and which of their books to read; since I've been blogging, I've had so many wonderful authors and books recommended to me. This is my list for now, although it may (verily I say, it definitely will) change over time.

Kate Atkinson: Case Histories, or When Will There Be Good News?
Paul Auster: The Book of Illusions
Julian Barnes: Flaubert's Parrot
Heinrich Boll: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
T.C. Boyle: The Women
Geraldine Brooks: People of the Book
Italo Calvino: If on a winter's night a traveler
Angela Carter: Wise Children
Philip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dean Koontz: Mr. Murder
Haruki Murakami: Norwegian Wood, or The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Audrey Niffenegger: Her Fearful Symmetry
William Trevor: Love and Summer
Sarah Waters: Affinity, or The Little Stranger
Rebecca West: The Fountain Overflows

And yes, I know there are more than ten authors on my list. Well, I've never been accused of over-achieving. I just don't do decisiveness very well.