#1 - The Reading List
With the new academic year comes the start of “My Year With Joan Didion.” In this first post, I want to outline the reading list and schedule that will guide me through the end of May 2026. This calendar, of course, is subject to change. But I wanted a clear plan in place and a bird's-eye view of when exactly I’ll be moving in and out of the various genres she wrote in. It’s also motivating to know when I’ll run into my old favorites.
I’m reading chronologically as much as possible. I’ve gone back and forth, for instance, on what to do with Let Me Tell You What I Mean. Do I read this as the last book published before her death in 2021? Or do I break it into pieces, starting with her 1968 essays in The Saturday Evening Post? What I have tentatively decided to do is, well, read it both ways. I don’t see this as creating more “work” for myself. Rather, it seems like a good opportunity to read the essays in two contexts.
I can’t call this list completely exhaustive— some of her early work while at Berkeley, Mademoiselle, and Vogue, for example, has been left off. But it does include many of her early essays and all of her major works. This is plenty of material, I think, for my purpose and the constraints of an August-May reading list.
The Library of America editions of her work makes a project like this so much easier.
While I read a lot about Didion, and while I’m looking forward to writing a review of Alissa Wilkinson’s new book on Didion & Hollywood, I’m trying to prioritize Didion herself as much as possible. Maybe next summer I’ll put together a list of my favorite works on Didion, as a kind of follow up to MYWJD.
Thanks for joining me on this creative journey. If you have any questions or are interested in collaborating, please get in touch at gabrielle@gabriellestecher.com
