Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Prize winning books....

I can't believe that the Booker Prize winner has been announced already. Howard Jacobson's The Finkler something or other as if you didn't know! He's a writer who slagged off the prize a few years ago as being "an absolute abomination- the same dreary books year after year...." I wonder what he thinks now! I've made it a goal of mine to read all the Bookers and have so far only waded through about a quarter of them and, rather anoyingly, still haven't got around to reading Wolf Hall, which was last year's winner. So I've got some catching up to do. It's great being a book seller most of the time but it can be a tad frustrating at times being surrounded by lovely books but with so little time to read them. Perhaps if I stopped blogging on Tonbridge Blog and twitter I'd have more time. Waddaya fink?...

1 comment:

Paul Bailey said...

I know the Booker Prize is probably the most famous and lucrative prize in the literary world, but apart from that I don't know that much about it. For instance, do they change the judges each year?, or do they keep the same pannel? (making allowances for any that might have died or otherwise have moved on)

What criteria are used to judge the winner, and who draws up the shortlist?

Years ago I once worked for a subsidiary company of Bookers, and on one occasion we each received a hardback limited-edition book containing excerts from some of the past winners.

As for this years winner, surely he refused the money on principle - given what you have said about him!