I Read Therefore I Am discussion

Was looking through the Shortlist and past winners for this and realised I haven't read any of this year's contenders and very few of the previous ones.
So going to start with this years shortlist - winner announced tonight btw!

Colm Toibin - The Testament of Mary
Eleanor Catton -The Luminaries
NoViolet Bulawayo - We Need New Names
Jim Crace - Harvest
Jhumpa Lahiri - The Lowland
Ruth Ozeki - A Tale for the Time Being

Luckily for me, my local library has a copy of all of these :)

The Waterstone's blog had the opening chapter of A Tale For the Time Being recently, I enjoyed reading it, plan to read it before too long; may have to see if my library has a copy :)

I like this idea - I've got The Luminaries, A Tale For the Time Being and (I think) We Need New Names in my TBR pile. Let me know when you get round to these - we could have some buddy reads maybe :0)

I haven't read any of these either but the Luminaries is already in my To Buy pile. I wish my library was a bit more accessible!

Cool! I was hoping you lot would want to join in with at least some of them - will let you know what I get from the library ;)

I've reserved a copy of A Tale for the Time Being - there are 7 reservations on it already!! Could be a long wait :(

That's a shame - must be a lot of interest with the prize being announced tonight - if you want to do the buddy read, we can leave that one till it comes in!

Out of the whole list, only one is checked out of my library which is good for me but obviously means the Man Booker Prize has gone completely unnoticed in Sunderland :S

A idea read would be great, but it'll take ages for me to get hold of the library copy. I may, however, give in and buy it. I do have the Testament of Mary already

OK so the prize went to Eleanor Catton for The Luminaries. Apparently she is the youngest person to win it!

Ugh, just seen what iPad autocorrect did to my last post - first three words should be "A buddy read"

Ellie wrote: "Ugh, just seen what iPad autocorrect did to my last post - first three words should be "A buddy read""

oops!

Here's the link about the winner: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainme...

I sometimes think the autocorrect does it deliberately.

Laurel no surprise about lack of Booker interest in Sunderland. I can say that as I lived there until 8 years ago and still spend most weekends there. It's a shame because it's a lovely central library, or was last time I was there.

PS you're only allowed to criticise where someone lives unless you live there too. Let's tell that to the guys who wrote and published Crap Towns!

No I wasn't surprised either but I'm always happy to be proved wrong! I like the central library, it's the one I always go to cos the one at Houghton isn't very big and doesn't have a lot of choice (the usual suspects you know...).

Also, it's totally fine for us to criticise it but I was really cross with the morons that wrote Crap Towns! Not impressed

The town of Dursley, near me in Gloucestershire, was similarly in uproar after appearing in Crap Towns!

I've just seen that The Luminaries is 800+ pages!!! Mmm, may take me a while to get round to it, too much other stuff on!

I spent 18 years in Dursley and can confirm that it used to be pretty crap - when I passed through recently it seemed to be improving though. I remember that it was described in a guide to Gloucestershire as " a great place to look out from"!

Ok so went to library this morning and got The Lowland, The Testament of Mary and We Need New Names so if anyone fancies a readalong of any of those let me know and I will put it in the readalongs folder :)

Definitely up for We Need New Names :0)

I'm up for the Testament of Mary, as it's the only one I have at the moment

Yay! I'll put them in the readalongs folder then

Changed the title of the thread and crossed off The Testament of Mary - hopefully we will like some of the other better!

We're bound to - I have particularly high hopes for The Luminaries and A Tale for the Time Being.

Yeah, I've heard good things about Jhumpa Lahiri as well so looking forward to The Lowland.

I really liked the opening chapter of A Tale For The Time Being, which was featured in a recent Waterstone's blog, so I am anticipating that it will impress me more than Mary did

Two down, four to go. Am planning on reading The Lowland next as have got a copy still on loan.

Don't think I've got time for The Lowland - so I'll join you again later :o)

I'm sure I've posted this before - but it might be of interest in your Booker short list journey - Book Globe has "mapped" all the books that have ever made the Shortlist. Click the red marks and it tells you a bit about each one.
http://thebookglobe.com/index.html

Jhumpa Lahiri's 'The Lowland' is BBC radio 4's Book at bedtime if anyone is interested. It's on at 22:45 monday nights although they keep it on the website for a week if you miss it. Started last Monday.

I'm terrible at listening to books read aloud -I tend to start thinking about something or day dreaming and miss half the story :0)

I've never listened to a audiobook before - might try this though, they are in 15 mins episodes so hopefully won't drift off

I bought myself a copy of A Tale for the Time Being the other day as it was only £4.63 on the kindle (weird price I know) and I felt like a treat - are we up for reading this one, maybe December or jan sometime???

Yay - I really like the sound of that one - either month works for me (ooh remember we've got Austerlitz for December)

Yeah I thought maybe Jan, and I think Ellie wanted to read this one as well but was having a bit trouble getting hold of a copy

Yeah, Jan would probably be best.

Just thinking - can we all fit another read in alongside Persuasion? Didn't we discuss that as a readalong for Jan?

I shall probably buy a copy of Tale for the Time Being, the queue of reservations for it in the library is massive!

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten - how about Feb then?