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

Oh, Coco, I wish. We have bookshelves from the great Nordic god of flatpack, which don't properly fill the (limited) space we have available and hence are hideously doublestacked.

Most of what's in my house is in my LibraryThing collection, so in a virtual sense, you can see my bookshelves! I haven't catalogued all the books I left at my mum's though....

I'm reading Lemony Snicket's "autobiography" while I wait for A Fraction of the Whole to come into the library.

Random trivia: Sophie Hannah used to live in a flat in the same block as us a few years ago (not that we ever met). Her first novel includes scenes set in a block of flats that is transparently that one - makes for slightly unnerving reading!

I've got that one on my TBR list - and Little Face on the shelf.

I would definitely not recommend The White Tiger as a light read.

I am hooked on Child44

If I thought it was bleak after 50 pages, I didn't know how lucky I was!! I don't really know what I thought, to be honest... it is really pretty grim, and all the worse because the narrator's tone is sort of lightly sardonic throughout most of the book, which is just SO far away from what is happening.

I found the subject matter so disturbing that I can't really decide whether it's a good book or not (and not sure I can face re-reading to make my mind up!!).

Could lend you that one as well if you don't already have a copy..? I got mine off ReadItSwapIt. Then you can hang on to the Linda Grant and post two back at once (assuming it's cheaper that way?).

Just the Steve Toltz to go now on the shortlist :-) I am first in the queue at the library but only went up to first yesterday (um, not that I am at all obsessed about all this...) so I guess it may not come in before the final announcement.

Coco, I really, really wanted to like the Hensher... but I completely agree about the editing. I found the proliferation of characters that were "a bit wrong in the head" a bit too much. A really impressive achievement though in this short-attention-span era - sustains the plot ad keeps you engaged right up to the end.

I'm wondering whether I will get around to reading the four that didn't make the shortlist that I hadn't already read (Girl in a Blue Dress, The Enchantress of Florence, Netherland, Child 44). Probably will read the first since I bought a copy off Green Metropolis, and possibly the third despite the hype but... not sure I'll manage the others. I haven't yet read a Rushdie because I find him too objectionable as a person (I know that's a stupid reason not to read his books), and Stalinist Russia isn't really my cup of tea.

Just started The White Tiger, which I don't think is going to be exactly a light read - clever, but bleak.

FiveGoMad, The Secret Scripture is a really special book - it sounds completely grim and miserable but in fact it's beautiful. Do give it a shot if you can bear it!

There's a shortlist reading at the South Bank Centre on the eve of the prize announcement - dithering over whether to go or not, am not usually in London on Mondays so it would be extra money for the train ticket....

Also what looks to be a really interesting exhibition at the V&A which I'm certainly going to try to get to.

The Clothes on their Backs
Northern Clemency
A Fraction of the Whole

There are 3 that I would like to read and 3 that I don't.

Hey, great that you have a DH that reads, FiveGoMad! Every year I optimistically buy DH books that I think he will like and every year he exclaims enthusiastically, puts them on the shelf and never opens them again..

Just had email from library that The Northern Clemency has FINALLY arrived. 700 pages before Tuesday? ha ha ha.

Book budget - hence trying to find books that we will both like, it is my only really self indulgent thing.

Glad it got there OK, Coco. dovegreyreader absolutely loved it - personally I found the clothes business a bit over-laboured but it did the trick for her.

Interested to hear your take on Child 44 - so many people seem to have been so rude about it!

Have just tried (and failed) to snag a copy off ReadItSwapIt, ho hum. Have frustratingly run dry on longlist books now, although expecting a copy of The White Tiger through the post soon. Not meant to be spending money this month but postage on book-swapping doesn't count, right?

Stunbled across this trhead and now have Child44 by the side of my bed waiting to be read, trying to find books that both me and DH will read so this ones looks like it will fit the bill.

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!!

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..?

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...

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!!

The Other Hand by Chris Cleaves I hope.