John Updike Reading Order

29 books (1892–2012)

Start with Walt Whitman(By: Walt Whitman), the first of 29 books in the American Poets Project series.

#	Title
1	Walt Whitman(By: Walt Whitman) 1892Buy 🇺🇸
2	Edgar Allan Poe(By: Richard Wilbur) 1909Buy 🇺🇸
3	Theodore Roethke(By: ) 1969Buy 🇺🇸
4	A. R. Ammons(By: David Lehman,A.R. Ammons) 1977Buy 🇺🇸
5	William Carlos Williams(By: William Carlos Williams) 1984Buy 🇺🇸
6	Edna St. Vincent Millay(By: Edna St. Vincent Millay) 1991Buy 🇺🇸
7	Carl Sandburg: Selected Poems(By: Carl Sandburg) 1996Buy 🇺🇸
8	Yvor Winters(By: Thom Gunn,Yvor Winters) 1999Buy 🇺🇸
9	American Wits(By: John Hollander) 2003Buy 🇺🇸
10	Karl Shapiro(With: Karl Shapiro) 2003Buy 🇺🇸
11	Poets of World War II(By: Various,Harvey Shapiro) 2003Buy 🇺🇸
12	John Berryman(By: Kevin Young,John Berryman) 2004Buy 🇺🇸
13	John Greenleaf Whittier(By: John Greenleaf Whittier) 2004Buy 🇺🇸
14	Kenneth Fearing(By: Robert Polito,Kenneth Fearing) 2004Buy 🇺🇸
15	Muriel Rukeyser(By: Muriel Rukeyser) 2004Buy 🇺🇸
16	Edith Wharton(By: Edith Wharton) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
17	Emma Lazarus(By: Emma Lazarus) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
18	Poets of the Civil War(By: J.D. McClatchy) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
19	The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks(By: Gwendolyn Brooks,Elizabeth Alexander) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
20	Cole Porter(By: Robert Kimball,Cole Porter) 2006Buy 🇺🇸
21	Louis Zukofsky(By: Louis Zukofsky,Charles Bernstein) 2006Buy 🇺🇸
22	American Sonnets(By: David Bromwich) 2007Buy 🇺🇸
23	Kenneth Koch(By: Ron Padgett,Kenneth Koch) 2007Buy 🇺🇸
24	James Agee(By: James Agee,Andrew Hudgins) 2008Buy 🇺🇸
25	Ira Gershwin(By: Robert Kimball,Ira Gershwin) 2009Buy 🇺🇸
26	Poems from the Women's Movement(By: Honor Moore) 2009Buy 🇺🇸
27	Countee Cullen(By: Major Jackson,Countee Cullen) 2010Buy 🇺🇸
28	Lyrics of the First Great Popular Songs(By: Stephen Collins Foster,Ken Emerson) 2010Buy 🇺🇸
29	Amy Lowell(By: Honor Moore) 2012Buy 🇺🇸

28 books (1963–2019)

Start with 50 Great American Short Stories, the first of 28 books in the Anthologies series.

#	Title
1	50 Great American Short Stories 1963Buy 🇺🇸
2	Ten Modern American Short Stories 1965Buy 🇺🇸
3	Prize Stories 1970: The O. Henry Awards 1970Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Best American Short Stories 1984 1984Buy 🇺🇸
5	Great Baseball Stories 1990Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Best American Short Stories 1991 1991Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Oxford Book of American Short Stories 1992Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Short Story: 30 Masterpieces 1992Buy 🇺🇸
9	Deadly Sins 1994Buy 🇺🇸
10	First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Writers 1994Buy 🇺🇸
11	The Literary Traveller 1994Buy 🇺🇸
12	Listening for God, Vol. 2 1996Buy 🇺🇸
13	Our Mothers' Spirits: Great Writers on the Death of Mothers and the Grief of Men 1997Buy 🇺🇸
14	The Best American Mystery Stories 1999 1999Buy 🇺🇸
15	40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology 2000Buy 🇺🇸
16	The Best American Short Stories of the Century 2000Buy 🇺🇸
17	Wonderful Town 2000Buy 🇺🇸
18	The Best American Short Stories 2001 2001Buy 🇺🇸
19	Writers on Writing 2001Buy 🇺🇸
20	Baseball: a Literary Anthology 2002Buy 🇺🇸
21	Classic Erotic Tales 2002Buy 🇺🇸
22	Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania 2005Buy 🇺🇸
23	The Best American Erotica 2006 2006Buy 🇺🇸
24	The New Granta Book of the American Short Story 2007Buy 🇺🇸
25	First Words: Earliest Writing from Favorite Contemporary Authors 2009Buy 🇺🇸
26	My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me 2010Buy 🇺🇸
27	Writers: Their Lives and Works 2018Buy 🇺🇸
28	Reel Verse 2019Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (1974–1992)

Start with Buchanan Dying and read in order.

#	Title
1	Buchanan Dying 1974Buy 🇺🇸
2	Memories of the Ford Administration 1992Buy 🇺🇸

4 books (1994–2002)

Start with Listening for God Reader, Vol. 1(By: Flannery O'Connor,Raymond Carver,Alice Walker,Garrison Keillor,Annie Dillard,Richard Rodríguez,Patricia Hampl,Peter Hawkins,Frederick Buechner,Paula J. Carlson,Peter S. Hawkins), the first of 4 books in the Contemporary Literature and the Life of Faith series.

#	Title
1	Listening for God Reader, Vol. 1(By: Flannery O'Connor,Raymond Carver,Alice Walker,Garrison Keillor,Annie Dillard,Richard Rodríguez,Patricia Hampl,Peter Hawkins,Frederick Buechner,Paula J. Carlson,Peter S. Hawkins) 1994Buy 🇺🇸
2	Listening for God, Vol. 2(With: Anne Tyler,Tobias Wolff,Gail Godwin,Henry Louis Gates Jr.,Kathleen Norris,Paula J. Carlson,Peter S. Hawkins,Carol Bly,Andrew Dubus) 1996Buy 🇺🇸
3	Listening for God, Vol. 3(By: Tillie Olsen,Wendell Berry,John Cheever,Louise Erdrich,Mary Gordon,Tess Gallagher,Reynolds Price,Oscar Hijuelos,Paula J. Carlson,Peter S. Hawkins) 2000Buy 🇺🇸
4	Listening For God, Vol. 4(By: Robert Olen Butler,Allegra Goodman,James Baldwin,Kent Haruf,SueMiller,Doris Betts,Paula J. Carlson,Peter S. Hawkins,MichaelMalone,Alice Elliot Dark) 2002Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (1984–2008)

Start with The Witches of Eastwick and read in order.

#	Title
1	The Witches of Eastwick 1984Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Widows of Eastwick 2008Buy 🇺🇸

17 books (1957–2012)

Start with The Doubtful Guest(By: Edward Gorey), the first of 17 books in the Edward Gorey Picture series.

#	Title
1	The Doubtful Guest(By: Edward Gorey) 1957Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Object-Lesson(By: Edward Gorey) 1958Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Fatal Lozenge(By: Edward Gorey) 1961Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Sinking Spell(By: Edward Gorey) 1964Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Remembered Visit(By: Edward Gorey) 1965Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Utter Zoo(By: Edward Gorey) 1967Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Blue Aspic(By: Edward Gorey) 1968Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Other Statue(By: Edward Gorey) 1968Buy 🇺🇸
9	The Osbick Bird(By: Edward Gorey) 1970Buy 🇺🇸
10	The Eleventh Episode(By: Edward Gorey) 1971Buy 🇺🇸
11	The Sopping Thursday(By: Edward Gorey) 1971Buy 🇺🇸
12	The Lost Lions(By: Edward Gorey) 1973Buy 🇺🇸
13	The Glorious Nosebleed(By: Edward Gorey) 1974Buy 🇺🇸
14	The Twelve Terrors of Christmas 1994Buy 🇺🇸
15	The Beastly Baby(By: Edward Gorey) 1995Buy 🇺🇸
16	A Halloween Treat(By: Edward Gorey) 2012Buy 🇺🇸
17	Thoughtful Alphabets(By: Edward Gorey) 2012Buy 🇺🇸

5 books (1960–2000)

Start with Rabbit, Run, the first of 5 books in the Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom series.

#	Title
1	Rabbit, Run 1960Buy 🇺🇸
2	Rabbit Redux 1971Buy 🇺🇸
3	Rabbit Is Rich 1981Buy 🇺🇸
4	Rabbit at Rest 1990Buy 🇺🇸
5	Licks of Love 2000Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (1982–1999)

Start with Bech Is Back and read in order.

#	Title
1	Bech Is Back 1982Buy 🇺🇸
2	Bech at Bay 1998Buy 🇺🇸
3	Bech: A Book 1999Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (1979–1980)

Start with Too Far to Go and read in order.

#	Title
1	Too Far to Go 1979Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Maples Stories 1980Buy 🇺🇸

14 books (1965–2020)

Start with Assorted Prose, the first of 14 books in the Non-Fiction series.

#	Title
1	Assorted Prose 1965Buy 🇺🇸
2	Picked-Up Pieces 1975Buy 🇺🇸
3	Hugging the Shore 1983Buy 🇺🇸
4	Just Looking 1989Buy 🇺🇸
5	Self-Consciousness 1989Buy 🇺🇸
6	Odd Jobs 1991Buy 🇺🇸
7	Golf Dreams 1996Buy 🇺🇸
8	More Matter 1999Buy 🇺🇸
9	Still Looking 2005Buy 🇺🇸
10	Due Considerations 2007Buy 🇺🇸
11	Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu 2010Buy 🇺🇸
12	Higher Gossip 2011Buy 🇺🇸
13	Always Looking 2012Buy 🇺🇸
14	In Love with a Wanton 2020Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (1964–1994)

Start with Magic Flute and read in order.

#	Title
1	Magic Flute 1964Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Twelve Terrors of Christmas(With: Edward Gorey) 1994Buy 🇺🇸

5 books (1965–2015)

Start with A Child's Calendar, the first of 5 books in the Poetry Collections series.

#	Title
1	A Child's Calendar 1965Buy 🇺🇸
2	Seventy Poems 1972Buy 🇺🇸
3	Collected Poems, 1953-1993 1993Buy 🇺🇸
4	A Helpful Alphabet of Friendly Objects 1995Buy 🇺🇸
5	Selected Poems 2015Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (1974–1988)

Start with A Month of Sundays and read in order.

#	Title
1	A Month of Sundays 1974Buy 🇺🇸
2	Roger's Version 1986Buy 🇺🇸
3	S. 1988Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (1961–1989)

Start with A&P and read in order.

#	Title
1	A&P 1961Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Alligators 1989Buy 🇺🇸

27 books (1959–2020)

Start with The Same Door, Short Stories, the first of 27 books in the Short Story Collections series.

#	Title
1	The Same Door, Short Stories 1959Buy 🇺🇸
2	Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories 1961Buy 🇺🇸
3	Telephone Poles and Other Poems 1963Buy 🇺🇸
4	Olinger Stories 1964Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Music School 1966Buy 🇺🇸
6	Midpoint and Other Poems 1969Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Dance of the Solids 1969Buy 🇺🇸
8	Museums and Women and Other Stories 1972Buy 🇺🇸
9	C*nts 1974Buy 🇺🇸
10	Tossing and Turning 1977Buy 🇺🇸
11	Problems and Other Stories 1979Buy 🇺🇸
12	Valentine Generation And Other Stories 1981Buy 🇺🇸
13	The Carpentered Hen 1982Buy 🇺🇸
14	Facing Nature 1985Buy 🇺🇸
15	Trust Me 1987Buy 🇺🇸
16	The Afterlife and Other Stories 1994Buy 🇺🇸
17	Friends from Philadelphia and Other Stories 1995Buy 🇺🇸
18	Licks of Love 2000Buy 🇺🇸
19	Americana 2001Buy 🇺🇸
20	The Early Stories 2003Buy 🇺🇸
21	Three Trips 2005Buy 🇺🇸
22	Endpoint and Other Poems 2009Buy 🇺🇸
23	My Father's Tears and Other Stories 2009Buy 🇺🇸
24	Rich In Russia 2011Buy 🇺🇸
25	Collected Early Stories 2013Buy 🇺🇸
26	Collected Later Stories 2013Buy 🇺🇸
27	Hoping for a Hoopoe 2020Buy 🇺🇸

16 books (1958–2007)

Start with The Poorhouse Fair, the first of 16 books in the Standalone Novels series.

#	Title
1	The Poorhouse Fair 1958Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Centaur 1963Buy 🇺🇸
3	Of the Farm 1965Buy 🇺🇸
4	Couples 1968Buy 🇺🇸
5	Marry Me 1971Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Coup 1978Buy 🇺🇸
7	Your Lover Just Called 1980Buy 🇺🇸
8	More Stately Mansions 1987Buy 🇺🇸
9	Brazil 1994Buy 🇺🇸
10	In the Beauty of the Lilies 1996Buy 🇺🇸
11	Toward the End of Time 1997Buy 🇺🇸
12	Gertrude and Claudius 2000Buy 🇺🇸
13	Seek My Face 2002Buy 🇺🇸
14	Villages 2004Buy 🇺🇸
15	Terrorist 2007Buy 🇺🇸
16	The Women Who Got Away 2007Buy 🇺🇸