Booker 2024: got to read ‘em all!

[Trojanbores]

Does anybody else set themselves the absurd target of reading the Booker longlist each year?

Would you like to join me? It announces on Tuesday.

Any ideas about what will be on it?

Just a bump, in case anyone is interested. Or have I missed another thread on this?!

Hi @Trojanbores I almost replied yesterday but am a slow reader and realistically I'd be impressed with myself if I got through the shortlist! Shall we see what's on the longlist tomorrow and maybe we can coincide on some of them as a readalong?

You’d be better on the what are we reading thread

Oh no, I've just looked this up: another corner of Mumsnet to distract me!

I did try to look for ‘books’ or ‘reading’ @Scarletrunner . It didn’t occur to me to look up ‘what we are reading now’.

Do you think that Mumsnet might reallocate me?

www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading

We've moved your thread over, @Trojanbores

Good luck with the challenge

I did this last year and thought I'd give it another go this year. I managed to get all books from the library last year as I was quick to order them.

I usually try the shortlist.

I find the shortlist window too short! I don’t get through much once it’s announced.

I read better under time pressure 😂

https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/13-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-booker-prize-2024-longlist?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Here’s the list.

amp.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/30/three-british-novelists-make-booker-2024-longlist-among-cohort-of-global-voices

Ha ha - I no longer set myself up for failure by setting myself impossible challenges like this - although I'm full of admiration for anyone who does. Also I'm in the middle of a stressful house sale so no way I can commit.
HOWEVER having looked at the list I'd just like to say Richard Powers is one of my all-time favourite writers and I'd love to see him win and reach a wider readership. I also fancy the Anne Michaels. So I might just watch you guys read and be a spectator. Can't promise any more than that right now.
Anyone else read any Richard Powers?

I might do this as I have already read James and I am in the middle of The Safekeep.

I liked the overstory by Powers and like the sound of the Clare Messud one.

I have got The Safekeep and got halfway through it before giving up! May have another go now it's on the Booker long list.

Orbital is short, apparently. I might start there. James looks like a winner - always worth covering the favourites.

Orbital is brilliant- very unusual. Not much plot as such, but it’s good to find such an impressive novel about science and scientists. My Friends and James are also both excellent and I suspect one of these will win. Enlightenment is readable and I did enjoy it, but the plot is often improbable and melodramatic imo. Not read any of the others yet.

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry is going to be on Radio 4 next week. I love her books.

I am hoping to read most of the longlist (not all of them appeal) I’ve started with Wild Houses by Colin Barrett.

Last year my very favourite book was The Bee Sting, I think it was much better than the eventual winner.

I have read Orbital.

It is brilliant writing: I agree and, yes, refreshing to read about science and scientists.

It reminds me why I always do read the Booker Longlist - it makes me read what I wouldn’t normally choose.

Not sure where to go next. Orbital was short - you could read it in an afternoon.

The whole long list would be a real stretch for me, although I've read the shortlist several times. I've discovered some pretty weird stuff that way (Will Self's Umbrella anyone?)

However it's been a while, and this year is the first in a while when I've been tempted to do it again.

This year’s Longlist does seem a bit more fun.

I really loved Claire Messud's The emperor's children so will try her new one. American fiction was a fabulous film so also tempted by James. I had Orbital out the library but didn't read it.

Hi @Trojanbores
I try to do this every year but I don’t buy the books myself- I get them from the library.
I am patiently waiting for my reserves to come through and hoping they don’t all come at once! This is what happened last year and it meant I couldn’t read them all before they were due back.
My library doesn’t have them all in yet, but so far I have managed to reserve these:
James (would have read this anyway)
Orbital (so intrigued by this)
Wild Houses
Enlightenment
Held
This Strange Eventful History
I’m very glad there aren’t any huge monsters on the list this year.