The Man Booker Prize - 2007

On the 31st August 2007 in a search for better books to read (nothing was coming close to Raw Shark Texts), I did a Wikipedia search on the Man Booker Prize, and pulled off the complete list since it started. This print out, which has seen much better days and is now in quite a shabby state from living in my handbag for over a month and is complete with tears, scuffs, many pencil and pen markings and words has become the list to which I am now reading. But more than that I learnt at the time of printing this that the Long List (13 titles) had been announced but the short list had not, so my quest became to read them all. I would like to say that I hoped to achieve this before the announcement of the winner (which is the 16th October, so I still have a little time), but am realistic enough to know this is not possible, and so therefore I just aim to read as many of the short list (announced two weeks ago) as I can.

At this point it would seem appropriate to thank my local library in Boroondara for ordering in the 7 books on the long list that they did not have after I casually requested them. How brilliant is that?

Short List - 2007

Darkmans - Nicola Barker
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones
On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
Animal's People - Indra Sinha
The Gathering - Anne Enright


(Image taken from www.themanbookerprize.com - Official website for The Man Booker Prize)

Titles from the Long List - 2007

Self Help - Edward Docx
The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng
The Welsh Girl - Peter Ho Davies
Gifted - Nikita Lalwani
What Was Lost - Catherine O'Flynn
Consolation - Michael Redhill
Winnie & Wolf - A.N. Wilson

I am pleased to say that between Ian and I we will get through the whole short list by next Tuesday! I have read four of the short list and am halfway through The Gathering and Ian has read one and is halfway through Darkmans. We will both finish our current books in time, but I am not sure I'll get through the 800+ pages of Darkmans in time, and well Ian has quite a feat to achieve if he was to get through the remaining four, but I'm sure he'll knock one or two more off in time.