If you haven't spent much time following book awards they are an excellent source for great reading lists. Here is a listing of books from The National Book Award beginning in 1950 to present. Follow along in order or pick and choose as it pleases. Happy reading!

1950 - The Man with the Golden Arm (Nelson Algren)
1951 - The Collected Stories of William Faulkner (William Faulkner)
1952 - From Here to Eternity (James Jones)
1953 - Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
1954 - The Adventures of Augie March (Saul Bellow)
1955 - A Fable (William Faulkner)
1956 - Ten North Frederick (John O'Hara)
1957 - The Field of Vision (Wright Morris)
1958 - The Wapshot Chronicle (John Cheever)
1959 - The Magic Barre (Bernard Malamud)
1960 - Goodbye,Columbus (Philip Roth)
1961 - The Waters of Kronos (Conrad Richter)
1962 - The Moviegoer (Walker Percy)
1963 - Morte D'Urban (J. F. Powers)
1964 - The Centaur (John Updike)
1965 - Herzog (Saul Bellow)
1966 - The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (Katherine Anne Porter)
1967 - The Fixer (Bernard Malamud)
1968 - The Eighth Day (Thornton Wilder)
1969 - Steps (Jerzy Kosinski)
1970 - Them (Joyce Carol Oates)
1971 - Mr. Sammler's Planet (Saul Bellow)
1972 - The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor (Flannery O'Connor)
1973 - Chimera (John Barth) / Augustus (John Williams)
1974 - Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon) / A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories (Isaac Bashevis Singer)
1975 - Dog Soldiers (Robert Stone) / The Hair of Harold Roux (Thomas Williams)
1976 - JR (William Gaddis)
1977 - The Spectator Bird (Wallace Stegner)
1978 - Blood Ties (Mary Lee Settle)
1979 - Going After Cacciato (Tim O'Brien)
1980 - Sophie's Choice (William Styron) / The World According to Garp (John Irving)
1981 - Plains Song (Wright Morris) / The Stories of John Cheever (John Cheever)
1982 - Rabbit is Rich (John Updike) / So Long, See You Tomorrow (William Maxwell)
1983 - The Color Purple (Alice Walker) / Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (Eudora Welty)
1984 - Victory Over Japan: A book of stories (Ellen Gilchrist)
1985 - White Noise (Don DeLillo)
1986 - World's Fair (E.L. Doctorow)
1987 - Paco's Story (Larry Heinemann)
1988 - Paris Trout (Pete Dexter)
1989 - Spartina (John Casey)
1990 - Middle Passage (Charles Johnson)
1991 - Mating (Norman Rush)
1992 - All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy)
1993 - The Shipping News (Annie Proulx)
1994 - A Frolic of His Own (William Gaddis)
1995 - Sabbath's Theater (Philip Roth)
1996 - Ship Fever and Other Stories (Andrea Barrett)
1997 - Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier)
1998 - Charming Billy (Alice McDermott)
1999 - Waiting (Ha Jin)
2000 - In America (Susan Sontag)
2001 - The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen)
2002 - Three Junes (Julia Glass)
2003 - The Great Fire (Shirley Hazzard)
2004 - The News from Paraguay (Lily Tuck)
2005 - Europe Central (William T. Vollmann)
2006 - The Echo Maker (Richard Powers)
2007 - Tree of Smoke (Denis Johnson)
2008 -

You can search for these or any other books at your local library or through Amazon's handy search box below.

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M. E. Wood lives in Eastern Ontario, Canada. If you are going to find this eclectic reader and writer anywhere it is probably at her computer. For more information visit her official website.