Page 2 | How many Booker prize winners have you read?

ElaineMarieBenes · 12/08/2021 23:29

I have read quite a few (went through a phase of reading the short list for a few years - generally agreed when the winner was announced!). Have enjoyed them all but top three are:

Saunders: Lincoln in the Bardo
James: A brief history of seven killings
Mantell: Wolf Hall

shivermetimbers77 · 12/08/2021 23:34

17- My favourite was The Ghost Road by Pat Barker, followed by The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje and Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.

rc22 · 13/08/2021 10:40

My favourite was Wolf Hall. I think I was helped by the fact that I'd seen the dramatisation on the telly before I read it.

Soomanybooks · 13/08/2021 10:43

28 of the winners, would take me a while to go through the short lists but I would guess quite a few.

BestIsWest · 13/08/2021 10:46

7 and DNF quite a few others including Wolf Hall. Must try it again.

onemouseplace · 13/08/2021 10:53

19 of the winners, which is more than I would have thought.

Favourites are probably:

Lincoln in the Bardo
Bring up the Bodies
The Sea, The Sea (but I am a massive Iris Murdoch fan).

IceandIndigo · 13/08/2021 13:36

Actually including some I didn’t know had won. Lots more from the shortlist.

My favourites would be Wolf Hall/BUTB, True History of the Kelly Gang, the English Patient, Remains of the Day. And A Fine Balance, can’t believe that didn’t win.

I recently read The New Wilderness which was shortlisted last year, it was dreadful, and easily one of the most depressing books I’ve read.

ClumpingBambooIsALie · 13/08/2021 13:38

@BestIsWest

7 and DNF quite a few others including Wolf Hall. Must try it again.

Spare yourself! There's something about that book… I swear if you don't get it the first time, you're doomed.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 13/08/2021 13:52

thebookerprizes.com/sites/manbosamjo/files/270320%20full%20list%20of%20longlisted%2C%20shortlisted%20and%20winners.pdf

PDF of all winners, shortlisted titles, longlisted titles. I've read more than I thought, but not as many as I should have done. The Ghost Road was very good. May re-read that trilogy. I enjoyed Hotel du Lac at the time but eventually found Anita Brookner formulaic. Last Orders was good too. I read that on the back of seeing a TV dramatisation/film. I enjoyed Possession but have never had any urge to re-read. Did get through Wolf Hall, but have not managed to read either of the sequels yet. Not sure why.

CorianderBee · 13/08/2021 14:00

Most aren't my kind of book tbh

PermanentTemporary · 13/08/2021 16:10

20 and a half - some other bits but the half was A Brief History of Seven Killings which was absolutely amazing but I just couldn't quite get there, I want to try again.

Reading the list I'm amazed at some of the winners. Amsterdam was OK I suppose but it can't have been the best thing that year. Same with Possession.

yossell · 13/08/2021 16:22

Surprised to find that I've read as many as 22. I do read a lot of literary fiction, though. With a few exceptions, not many of those prize winners would make my own 'best books' list. And some of them I thought downright ordinary/terrible.

I have tried three or four times to read all the shortlisted books before the winner was announced. I found that a great way to put me off books for a couple of months.

It's a strange creature, the booker prize....

Nuffaluff · 13/08/2021 16:32

30!!
I’m surprised I’ve read that many.

Curioushorse · 13/08/2021 16:43

38- but my birthday is right after the winner is announced, so I often get given that as a present. Plus, I'm in the industry so reading them is an expectation. I've read most of the shortlists too.

..... and I think they're quite random. Looking through the lists you can definitely see there were years when the whole shortlist was awesome, and other years when even the winner was meh.

I prefer the Women's Prize as an indication of books I'm guaranteed to love.

elkiedee · 13/08/2021 23:54

Somewhat astonished by two figures from the list just of winners in my case, that it's so many from the list and that it's very consistent over recent years, rhough I think that I didn't read most in the year that they were published or that they won.

I have read (at least) 24 winners! Not counting 2 that I only think I've read. Including all 12 between 2009 and 2019. And it wasn't a case of thinking I must read all the Booker winners. I think it's helped that my library reading group for about 8 years or so has quite serious reading tastes, and chose at least 5 or 6 of the most recent ones and a past winner, [Offshore], Another reading group chose a couple and many were books that I wanted to read anyway.

And I have to get to [Shuggie Bain] but after borrowing it from the library I found my own copy in a charity shop, and I've borrowed such an outrageous number of books from libraries (not to mention my own recent acquisitions in Kindle and dead tree format) that it may take me a while.

There are several of those 24 that I would like to reread because the first time was so long ago, they still sound interesting and I think I would get more out of a reread, and of the remaining winners I own quite a few and would like to read most of those. There are also some that I wouldn't say "never" to but I realistically I don't imagine that I will really read or reread them given that I have so much to choose from.

DappledThings · 14/08/2021 00:06

26 and a half. The half being The Famished Road which I started in a holiday rental and didn't get to finish.

mamaduckbone · 14/08/2021 00:40

9 winners, I think. There might be a few more. I've got several others on my bookshelf, mostly passed on from FIL, including The Milkman, which I've tried once and failed with, and Shuggie Bane. I also couldn't manage The Inheritance of Loss.
I've also read 13 or 14 others from the shortlist but a lot of those are by Margaret Atwood.

Favourites: The God of Small Things, Girl Woman Other, The Handmaids Tale/The Testaments
Least Favourite: A Little Life - just so bleak.

elkiedee · 14/08/2021 00:41

I've also read quite a lot of recent shortlisted and longlisted books, because the Booker Prize, and also the Women's Prize for Fiction, give me a chance to look through a list of literary fiction, look them all up and the chances are high I'll want to read some.

BitterTits · 14/08/2021 00:46

10, mainly as a pretentious 20-something though. I read purely for pleasure now I have less time.

AgentProvocateur · 14/08/2021 01:02

I’ve read 24 winners and loads more shortlisted books as I used to buy them as a bundle from The Book People. Found The Sellout a real struggle and Wolf Hall. Loved God of Small Things and I’m also outraged that A Fine Balance didn’t win 😉

paddlingon · 14/08/2021 02:45

I also used to always buy the book people bundle I looked forward to it.
Even if I didn't always love the books.
They stretched me a bit as a reader.

paddlingon · 14/08/2021 02:50

And I learned I really don't like books written by Julian Barnes.

JaninaDuszejko · 14/08/2021 06:24

The half being The Famished Road which I started in a holiday rental and didn't get to finish.

That make me 18.5. I started The Famished Road but never finished it. Should probably reread it now, I suspect I'll be able to cope with it much better now.

Terpsichore · 14/08/2021 09:10

I've read 11 of the winners and a fair few more of the shortlisted titles. That surprised me but I don't consciously set out to read them because they're Booker winners. I usually don't get round to them for a few years and then I just fancy reading them. I suppose the exception is Wolf Hall because it got so much publicity but even then it was probably a couple of years before I got round to it (and loved it - sorry!)

hattmancockk · 14/08/2021 10:31

Has anyone got a list with recommendations