Man Booker Longlist

What I’m Reading: Austenland by Shannon Hale and Driven by Eve Kenin.

What I’m working on: Getting to the first turning point in my second draft of Slayer and plotting Seer.

I’m a sucker for the Man Booker Prize.

Yes, I know: This fact ups my already high geek measurement on the geek meter.

But I don’t care.

The long list has been out for awhile and I’m only really just looking at it a little over a month later, so I’m not completely hopeless. However, I will study each book and read some of them and get lost in the brilliance of a few.

I’ll never be eligible for a Man Booker prize. Maybe that’s the reason I’m so fascinated. In order to win, you have to be a citizen of England or Ireland. While there are lots of writing prizes out there and while I usually check out the winners in many of them, the Man Booker is the one I like best.

From last year’s list, I read The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng and Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. Both were wonderful, but I loved, loved, loved The Gift of Rain. I still need to read the winner: Anne Enright’s The Gathering.

Here’s this year’s long list: 2008 Longlist. The shortlist will be announced this week on September 9th. I’ll post it when it comes out.

In the meantime, I’m off to my library’s website to request home delivery of the first title I’ll read: Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Did you see the author’s picture? Quite a hottie.)

M