What would you like to see on the Booker longlist next week?

[Cocodrillo]

The list is announced on the 29th. I think Sadie Jones' Outcast deserves to be on it for sure. Any more for any more?

[Marina]

The Rain before it Falls, Jonathan Coe

[cthea]

Booker time again?

[Cocodrillo]

come on, let's see if we can come up with 12 or 13 and see how close we get to the actual list.

[FlossieTCake]

I don't really want to see him on there as I find him completely insufferable, but Salman Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence is surely bound to be on the longlist.

Now have complete and utter memory failure as to what has actually been published this year as mostly I have been reading stuff that was published about two years ago. Will go and have a root around and come back with ideas.

[Cocodrillo]

I think Daivd Lodge's Deaf Sentence might make it on too. Not that I've read it!

[FlossieTCake]

I went to hear him read from it - the opening section was very, very funny, and it did get good reviews. Bit left-wing for Portillo, perhaps, though...?

Cynically, I guess Peter Carey - His Illegal Self will also be on there.



The Picador blog has got a longlist-guessing competition on - £50 of Picador books up for grabs.

[Cocodrillo]

Oh gawd, I didn't realize Portillo was chairing. I'm not sure that we would share the same taste in reading matter, somehow!

[Cocodrillo]

Flossie, well done, you got one.

Turns out I've heard of none of the longlisted titles.

[FlossieTCake]

I've heard of about half of them, I think - The Secret Scripture sounded really good.

Interesting that the Carey isn't on there - the Grauniad review wasn't very favourable but lots of other people seem to have loved it.

Wondering whether I dare commit myself to a Bookerthon.... seems a bit foolish given the length of The Northern Clemency!! Although that is on my want-to-read list.

[Cocodrillo]

Trying to read the longlist before the winner is announced?

I like the sound of the Northern Clemency. Also Girl in a Blue Dress (I think that's the name).

[Cocodrillo]

I like a challenge, but it sounds expensive, which puts me off! All those hardbacks... (wouldn't they look lovely on the bookshelves though ).

[FlossieTCake]

The libraries are bound to have a goodly number of copies in though, I would think. Except for the ones that haven't been published yet - John Berger not due out until September - ah, have just doublechecked on Amazon and it says "1 September", although that might be fabrication.

The Booker site says the shortlist will be announced on 9 Sept - wonder whether Verso will try to bring publication forward in case he doesn't make the shortlist....

I've kind of gone off hardbacks - they take up too much space . Have bought a few recently for a quid each from the warehouse sales, and I'm seriously thinking the time might have come to build some new bookshelves. Wish I wasn't rubbish at DIY

[FlossieTCake]

Humph. Famous last words.

Just went to our library's site - it's citing 1 copy of The Northern Clemency, from "storage" (but then our central library is closed for a massive refurbishment project at the moment so a lot ends up in storage).

Most of them have a maximum of 2 or 3 copies, spread across the county, apart from the Barry and Rushdie (about 7 or 8). Netherland is "under consideration for purchase"; A Fraction of the Whole doesn't even appear!

Oh well. I daresay they'll catch up.

[Cocodrillo]

That's what's so frustrating about libraries, they seem to take forever to get the books I want in.

I've requested the Northern Clemency - there's one copy in the whole of Southwark.

[FlossieTCake]

Post when you've got it! Will do the same.

[FlossCampi]

I went a bit crazy with the library requests and have just got The Secret Scripture through. The librarian was v impressed that I had asked for it and also anxious to point out that the quid request fee was very reasonable given (a) how far it had to come to get to me (b) what the book would have cost me new.

Don't think I'm going to get through much of the longlist before early October though!!

[Cocodrillo]

Me neither.

I ended up ordering the Northern Clemency from Amazon, so its sitting in my book pile (and is HUuuuuuGE).

Also got Child 44 through from the library. I'm reading that first as I figure someone else might be waiting for it. It's pretty long too! I have to say, it didn't sound my thing from the blurb: set in Stalinist Russia, about grizzly murders. It is totally engrossing though. A real thriller. Would recommend highly (am about halfway through).

I think if I get through these two by early October I'll have done well. But isn't the shortlist announced next month? Need to get reading...

I'd love to be a booker prize judge! Though sympathise with the amount of reading they have to do.

[BitOfFun]

The Other Hand by Chris Cleaves I hope.

[FlossCampi]

Had that bit of bad news about the shortlist date broken to me gently over the weekend... for some reason (God knows why) I was convinced that the shortlist was agreed in early Sept but not announced until Oct. Pooh. Not a chance of actually reading them all then - there are a lot of VERY chunky books on that list!

The Secret Scripture is brilliant - although another of those books in which harrowing and tragic things happen in an incredibly beautiful way so you are put through the wringer emotionally while appreciating its literary marvellousness.

Hoping The Northern Clemency arrives by Wednesday as I'm on holiday for a week in Cornwall, staying with relatives and it looks like it's going to be crowded and fraught so I will be looking to spend a LOT of time in my room!!

[FlossCampi]

A few people from work have formed a "Booker book club" (sadly did not invite me) - the idea being that each of them only has to buy 2 or 3 rather than the whole lot. They pass them on when they're done. Am certainly hoping to find something similar for next year...

[Cocodrillo]

What total gits, not inviting you

I'd be up for a MN booker book swap...

[FlossCampi]

Am trying to be charitable and assume that they didn't realise I'd be interested . Have nearly been there a year now but still feel like I don't know anyone terribly well.

I bought The Clothes On Their Backs today (voucher + work discount made it only just over 4 quid so it didn't feel so bad) - happy to post on when I'm done if you'd like it, Coco..?

[Cocodrillo]

Ooh, that'd be fab Flossie.

I've got the Northern Clemency, which you've already got your hands on elsewhere, but if I buy any others I'll let you know.

[FlossCampi]

Right, I'll try and get it in the post in the next few days. Worth a read but I don't think it'll make it to the shortlist TBH.

Northern Clemency still missing even though library website insists I am #1 in the queue. But have had the Mangoes one and an email to say From A to X is waiting, so I may yet manage a third of the longlist before the announcement!!

[Cocodrillo]

thanks so much Flossie, it arrived today.

I'm still reading the Northern Clemency, it is over 700 pages long! It's too big and heavy to take about with me, so I've got my MN book swap book for the train journey to work...

I'm enjoying NC, it's a real saga, good characters and quite funny in places.

I think for raw stand-out talent though, Child 44 was incredible. And annoyingly written by someone five years younger than me, grrr.