Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Booker Prize coming up....

I've been at it again on the blogosphere. With this years awards coming up soon here are my thoughts about the Booker Prize in response to a Telegraph article:

"Bringing Up the Bodies? Haven't read and won't as I hated most of Wolf Hall. A Sense of an Ending I enjoyed v much; Finkler Question was superb; White Tiger was pretty damned good, The Gathering was good but wrist slashingly depressing; Line of Beauty was beautiful provided you don't mind copious gay sex descriptions; Vernon God Little I thoroughly enjoyed; Life of Pi was ace and a still haven't watched film which I've been meaning to all summer; The Blind Assassin wasn't too bad, Disgrace was harrowing but fabulous; God of Small things I couldn't get on with; Rites of Passage is a must read. That's not a bad record of the ones I've read. The one that I thought let them down (and this is controversial I know) was the supposed Booker of Bookers, Midnight's Children. Perhaps it was over my head as customers in my bookshop have said that it's their all time favourite book. Maybe I should stick to flogging them instead of trying to actually read them!!.."

Anyone have anything to add to that?...

3 comments:

Paul Bailey said...

No!

Tonbridge blogger said...

Does that mean you don't approve PB?? Not a fan of the Booker then? Or are you making a comment about my choice of subject?

Paul Bailey said...

Strangely enough TB, I used to work for Bookers, so am no stranger to the Booker Prize. As a body that sets out to promote good writing, and encourage authors, the people behind the prize are, by and large, a force for good. However, just because a book, or an author, has been short-listed, doesn't necessarily mean the work is any better than something which hasn't.

Put it this way, I would prefer to assess the merits of a book based on my own judgement, rather than rush out and buy it just because the Booker Prize Committee have put it forward for the award. It's a bit like films, when reviewers, critics and, sometimes even colleagues, say "You must see such and such a film", my immediate reaction is to give it a wide berth! In other words, I don't like being told what I should see or what I should read!