How many Booker prize winners have you read?

[LBirch02]

2 for me

15 from the lists.

I cannot believe that Us by David Nichols made the list. I have been saving it this year for the MN ‘Books you hated in 2021’ thread.

Ten winners. Also started The Blind Assassin but wasn't bothered.

2 of the winners
Not been through all the massive list of shortlists!
Read White Tiger years ago I can't remember it now but I think it was good from what I recall
And Wolf Hall which was absolutely awful.

StColumboofNavron - David Nicholls - Us is excellent- read it in 2015!

I’ve read 3 winners and loads of short and long listed

@LBirch02 I would say it’s easily the worst book I have read in a good few years. I took great pleasure in deleting it permanently.

However, I accept we all like different things, like the Booker judges who put it there. I am a massive fan of books that lots of people hate so I’m usually on the other side

I've not counted but it will be a fair few as I also used to get the Book People bundle. I'd love another company to do a similar offer.

My favourite from the last few years is The Milkman, which I thought was utterly extraordinary.

Worst read was Washington Black, which I thought was tripe. The first portion dealing with the slave planation was good but it got increasingly simultaneously silly and boring.

Turns out I've read 47 if counting all winners and shortlisted books. But nothing before 1980.

I wonder what's the earliest on the list that people have read, and what should be on there that never made the shortlists?

For me, Girl by Edna O'brien is a huge omission. I know that Blue Flower was counted the book that should have been there by most industry professionals apparently. I've read it but it didn't leave a huge mark.

16 of the winners, plus 23 short listed.

Only 2, Vernon God Little and The Line of Beauty.

16, having checked the list.
Have not read any of thr past 4 years winners, though not deliberately

Only four: Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies, Possession and Midnight’s Children, all of which I loved.

I’ve read a handful of other books by Booker winning authors but I’m generally not into the same things that the Booker judges are.

7 winning novels. All of which were good, except for The Luminaries. Only sheer bloody mindedness not to let that book beat me got me through it. Most of it is written in a very odd, faux Dickens style, right down to the chapters titles/descriptions (and I do like Dickens).

Chapter 3,000,000, in which the reader has lost the will to live.

Just read through the list of winners and I've read 4 including Life of Pi which was so bloody awful, I just can't imagine what the Judges were thinking!

An old uni lecturer of mine was on the panel that year! Can't remember what she had to say about it now, but she loved it!

19. and loved Wolf HAll and Bring up the Bodies. Just about athird of the way through The Mirror and the Light

26. I adored the Luminaries. Don’t think Washington Black actually won? Just nominated I think. It’s funny, people have such strong views about certain books being terrible. The one I think really didn’t deserve to win was The Testaments - sure it was an enjoyable enough read but compared to the brilliance of Girl Woman Other - or even Blind Assassin - it falls short. I just feel it was given because the Handmaid’s Tale didn’t win rather than deserving in its own right.

12 and got a few more on the bookshelves to make my way through!

I'm really surprised to find I've read or listened to 20 winners (I often tackle literary fiction on audible). I do belong to two book clubs though who made me read quite a few which I really wasn't a big fan of! The Sea, The Sea and the Milkman spring to mind....

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is one of my favourite books. I recommend it to others often.

I also enjoyed Girl Woman Other, The Testaments and The Wolf hall books.

The one I think really didn’t deserve to win was The Testaments - sure it was an enjoyable enough read but compared to the brilliance of Girl Woman Other - or even Blind Assassin - it falls short. I just feel it was given because the Handmaid’s Tale didn’t win rather than deserving in its own right.

I love Margaret Atwood but I refuse to read that book! It's existence has been driven entirely by the popularity of the TV series of The Handmaid's Tale.

The Blind Assassin was definitely worthy of its win - a really brilliant book.

Ten definitely and possibly others but I can’t remember and if I can’t remember they probably don’t count! I certainly started Vernon God Little for example, but can’t remember if I gave up. Thirty seven of the shortlist (including winners), not counting those I started and couldn’t finish, like A Little Life.

Twelve and a half winners. The half was The Bone People, a book I gave up after about two thirds in disgust.

Top winning titles for me: True History of the Kelly Gang, The God of Small Things and Hotel du Lac.

@PermanentTemporary

Turns out I've read 47 if counting all winners and shortlisted books. But nothing before 1980.

I wonder what's the earliest on the list that people have read, and what should be on there that never made the shortlists?

For me, Girl by Edna O'brien is a huge omission. I know that Blue Flower was counted the book that should have been there by most industry professionals apparently. I've read it but it didn't leave a huge mark.

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is the earliest shortlisted book I have read (1971) and Midnight’s Children the earliest winner (1981).

I have read 20, I used to try and read the whole shortlist but I became disenchanted of those I've read its the Hilary Mantels and Lincoln In The Bardo by far.

4 winners and about 9 of the shortlisted ones - mostly because I went through a Roddy Doyle and Ian McEwan phase. I think I might try and read more - have quite a few on the bookshelf. Can't believe Room is on there though.

9 winners, 13 short-listed, and I've read some different works by winning or runner-up authors, that weren't shortlisted or winners. And a handful I've not read, but seen/heard as films or R4 adaptations.

I had to look up the list, though - I had no idea they were prize winners or shortlisted; the Booker has nothing to do with why I read them.