No, it doesn’t really. I was just trying to get your attention. Mean Bookie!
So, the 2010 Man Booker Prize longlist of 13 titles has been announced and the … nominees… are (dundahdahDAH!):
Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)
Emma Donoghue Room (Pan MacMillan – Picador)
Helen Dunmore The Betrayal (Penguin – Fig Tree)
Damon Galgut In a Strange Room (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Books)
Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)
Andrea Levy The Long Song
(Headline Publishing Group – Headline Review)
Tom McCarthy C (Random House – Jonathan Cape)
David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Hodder & Stoughton – Sceptre)
Lisa Moore February (Random House – Chatto & Windus)
Paul Murray Skippy Dies (Penguin – Hamish Hamilton)
Rose Tremain Trespass (Random House – Chatto & Windus)
Christos Tsiolkas The Slap (Grove Atlantic – Tuskar Rock)
Alan Warner The Stars in the Bright Sky
(Random House – Jonathan Cape)
Oh my! I haven’t read any of these! And I call myself a book reviewer … PAH! Though, in my saving grace, I do have a copy of the book that should win and yes I’m saying that even though I haven’t read it yet, but come on y’all it’s David Mitchell and that man is a fricken genius writer and one of the best of our time, and I have no problems stating that categorically, at all.
Inhale.
I have been holding off on reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet because I know it’s going to be brilliant and once you’ve read it… you’ve read it. You can’t ever read it for the first time again. Ever! And I’m waiting for just the right moment when I can sink into it and splash around like a duckling in a rain puddle on a summer’s day.
Plus the cover of the edition I have – she is gorgeous. I have reproduced it below in all it’s colour glory, but, oh! I cannot reproduce the way it feels, the slight gloss on the blue, the smell, the anticipation! I love this book like it’s an actual living, breathing thing… and that’s before I’ve read it. (Get that, e-book pushers? Yeah, you heard me.)
I really did think you were going to write about you going mad. Then I remembered… *grin*
I love love love your reviews – even when they’re about books you’ve not yet read.
<3
Awwww I love you!
I do declare today is Love Day on the Bookie Space.
Hmmm. BookieMonster’s BookieSpace. I really shouldn’t redo the website AGAIN.
Don’t worry – you’re not mad. I remember when I used to make a point of reading the Booker shortlist with real enthusiasm. Then it became a chore, before I had the “life’s too damn short” a-ha moment about ten years ago. I guess it’s time to pull out the rectal thermometer and chart my progress to terminal old-fartdom.
Hahaha, oh thanks for that lovely picture through words. You have a skill.
Yes these days I tend to mostly only read the winner if it’s something I think I’ll enjoy – like Wolf Hall last year which turned out to be a wonderful read.
It is a great book & on that should be savoured …. yes i am reading it now
Wooah! A personal recommendation and a tease all in one.
[...] remember that post about the Booker where I waxed lyrical about David Mitchell and how gorgeous the cover of The Thousand Autumns of [...]