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Reading every Booker shortlist

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    Reading every Booker shortlist

    Bob Jackson has read all 315 books ever shortlisted for the Booker, averaging two a week to complete the feat in just under four years. Cost-wise, it seems relatively affordable, in that many of the recent books tend to show up in charity shops, while even the relatively scarce older titles can be acquired online for little more than the postage fee. That said, there have been accusations over the years (similar to the Oscars) of the judges favouring texts of limited public appeal to adhere to a perceived literary ideal, so whether a reader should aspire to dutifully plough through the back catalogue in a penitential pursuit of cultural roughage is perhaps debatable.

    #2
    Two a week is, to me, astounding. I would dearly love to be able to read fiction that quickly. Non fiction isn't an issue, but fiction feels like I'm reading it one word at a time.

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      #3
      Loved the interview with Jackson, and I've read two of his top ten - the Richard Flanagan novel, and Doris Lessing's The Good Terrorist. I read a lot of Lessing in my 20s (The Golden Notebook is brilliant, and her short fiction's excellent too), I must seek her back out again.

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        #4
        Originally posted by WOM View Post
        Two a week is, to me, astounding. I would dearly love to be able to read fiction that quickly.
        Me too. It does seem extraordinarily quick.

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          #5
          I used to read 200 or so pages in a day.

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            #6
            One of the panelists on the Giller Prize board was talking one time about reading '2 or 3 novels a week' during entry season, and that there was little time in their life for much else. I can't even imagine it. Some on this board have posted 'I finished it in one sitting', which always blows my mind.

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              #7
              The Luminaries is over 800 pages. Which is one reason I still haven't read it, nearly a decade on.

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                #8
                Does your reading speed up if you're on your third or fourth book by the same author?

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                  #9
                  People read three or four books by the same author....?

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                    #10
                    Even I have done that, back in my reading days.

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                      #11
                      I'm sure I've done that in non-fiction (Erik Larson, hands-down) and in fiction (Hemingway, obvs), but I don't follow authors.

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by WOM View Post
                        People read three or four books by the same author....?
                        Why not?

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                          #13
                          I didn't think of it as following authors. I thought of it as reading books I might enjoy.

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                            #14
                            What a weird question.

                            If I enjoy a book by one author, the odds are higher that I'll enjoy another book by them. I like the style, or the subject matter, or something. Sometimes it's a bad idea - some authors really only appear to have one good book in them - but on the whole I go back to the same well if the well is producing good stuff.

                            I'd have thought that everyone did that. Am I wrong?

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                              #15
                              Indeed - someone thinking "I liked David Copperfield, but I won't bother with Oliver Twist or Great Expectations" would seem rather bizarre to me.

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                                #16
                                I think I tend to be drawn to particular books rather than particular authors. I also almost never assume that if I love an author's 'landmark' work (eg Slaughterhouse 5), that I'm going to be well rewarded with some of their lesser works.

                                It's probably just me.

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                                  #17
                                  I think you are what the publishing industry would consider an anomaly.

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                                    #18
                                    I think theres some validity in what WOM saying. Generally most authors are subject to the law of diminishing returns. The more works they publish the more the the quality declines. Even I no longer religiously catching up with Stephen King (after 60 -70 publications) or Irvine Welsh (much less but still relatively prolific). Though still keep buying which guess also validates what caja-dglh saying.

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                                      #19
                                      I did the Good Terrorist in Uni, it really was fantastic. I couldn't think of anything more dispiriting than ploughing through every Booker nominee though. The winners are often bad enough, good god what roughage might be getting served up as nominees through the decades.

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