Man Booker
Don't you just love lists? I adore making lists of books that I want to read although I seldom stick to the rigidity of a list and often deviate from it. Stay tuned in the coming week for my summer reading list, which thus far only appears in my mind.
This year I am steadily progressing through the list of the Guardian's 1000 Books You Must Read and by year's end I should have completed one fifth of it, so that list will be taking me some time. Another list that I will probably want to embark on later this summer is the Man Booker Prize longlist, which will be announced at the end of July. So far I have dabbled with longlists and shortlists for the main literary prizes and only read ones that appealed to me but now that I am blogging I may make a conscious effort to complete the entire longlist, or at least the shortlist.
Thinking about the Man Booker prize and having requested J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace this week from the library I thought I would list the Booker winners that I have read (and those I own but have not yet read). There's a possibiility that I may try to read all of them - are there ones you have read that you particularly recommend or ones that you are wanting to read?
2008 - White Tiger by Aravind Ariga
2007 - The Gathering by Anne Enright
2006 - The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (own)
2005 - The Sea by John Banville
2004 - The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (reviewed here)
2003 - Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre (own)
2002 - Life of Pi by Yann Martel
2001 - True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
2000 - The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
1999 - Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (will be reading shortly)
1998 - Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
1997 - The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
1996 - Last Orders by Graham Swift
1995 - The Ghost Road by Pat Barker (own)
1994 - How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman
1993 - Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
1992 - The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
1992 - Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (joint winner)
1991 - The Famished Road by Ben Okri (own)
1990 - Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt
1989 - The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
1988 - Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
1987 - Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
1986 - The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis
1985 - The Bone People by Keri Hulme
1984 - Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
1983 - Life and Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee
1982 - Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
1981 - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
1980 - Rites of Passage by William Golding
1979 - Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
1978 - The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch (fairly certain that I own this)
1977 - Staying On by Paul Scott
1976 - Saville by David Storey
1975 - Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
1974 - The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
1974 - Holiday by Stanley Middleton (joint winner)
1973 - The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
1972 - G. by John Berger
1971 - In a Free State by V.S. Naipaul
1970 - The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens
1969 - Something to Answer For by P.H. Newby
Nine -soon to be ten- of forty one winning novels is not great but neither is it woeful. Funnily enough I haven't read anything that won before the year I was born and wonder if this is telling at all or just coincidental? As an aside: Midnight's Children (the Booker of Bookers and the Best of Booker) is one of my favourite novels; I love its lushness and epic, grand scope, and continually discover new gems upon re-reading. Anyway, best get back to reading as I have a lifetime of reading lists ahead of me.
9 comments:
I have always enjoyed the Booker winners that I've read in the past and so recently also set the task of challenging myself to read all of them. Luckily I had over ten titles already read when I started. My list is here.
I say you start with the books you own first, after you're done with Disgrace (which is great, by the way, so I hope you enjoy!). I don't think you will ever go wrong with any of those titles, unless you are very very picky. :)
Read The Remains of the Day, for sure, and The English Patient, and.. um.. all the rest?? Sorry this is no help but if you looked at my list, I recommend all the ones that I've read as I loved them all, except for two that are also technically good but which I didn't enjoy as much as the others (The Sea and Hotel du Lac).
By the way, what did you think of The Gathering? I'm too afraid to touch it as I have yet to read a positive review.
Also what do you think of Moon Tiger? I started it before but it never took off for me so I stopped. I hope to give it another try someday, when I'm in a different mood.
Oh, Claire, I wish I'd seen your list before I painfully copies all of the winning titles out! Haha.
It was great to see yours (and your other reading projects - btw, seeing as you love GGM please read Chronicle of a Death Foretold as soon as you can! It's my favourite of his).
Most of the copies I own are still at home with my parents but I'm going home late summer so will pack those when I do. After Disgrace I think I'll read The Famished Road.
Um, one of the reasons I am blogging is because I have such a hopeless retention for books! Neither The Gathering or Moon Tiger made a lasting impression but I did like them both. Moon Tiger is interesting, especially the style, but it is a little difficult to get into. The Gathering is bleak and raw and I found the chronology confusing but it is well written.
For me there are two standouts on the Booker list that you seem to have not read - Possession and Oscar & Lucinda. I also remeber Staying On and Heat & Dust being pretty good, but it's a long time since I read them. I've not been grabbed by the recent winners I'm afraid.
I loved The Sea! I started listening to it, but there were so many passages I wanted to reread that I got a copy from the library, too. I loved the reader's voice and got into a pattern of listening in the car and rereading at home in the evening. I'm not sure the experience would have been the same just reading or just listening though.
I also really liked The Sea, The Sea. "Do you suppose it's just the water?" asks the blogger from Lakeside Musing.
I'm trying to read them all. I've read 16 so far.
I saw you asking about the Gathering, and I am one of the few people who really enjoyed reading it. That is strange for me, as I don't normally like books without a plot, but for some reason I loved it.
I am a big fan of lists too :) I think I have read 13 of them, and have The white tiger on my tbr bookcase. I feel I should have read more of them since they were obviously acclaimed for some reason, but I guess I am less likely to have come across the earlier ones.
I hope you enjoy the Coetzee; I loved Disgrace, and I loved Youth, but some of his other books I found slightly too strange.
I also really enjoyed reading The gathering, definitely a worthy winner, although there were some other good titles on the shortlist that year.
I definitely recommend the Pat Barker, especially as you own it, and would agree about the English Patient and The remains of the day which others have highlighted.
For me, I think I might seek out Graham Swift's Last orders as I've enjoyed his other books immensely.
I read the White Tiger and loved it - different from the books I normally enjoy and not necessarily a main character I could say I liked but I loved the book.
Thank you all for your suggestions! I think beyond Disgrace I will read The Famished Road and then ... we shall see. A good friend recommended The Bone People so I may try that.
I really appreciate your input and looking forward to reading your choices and sharing my thoughts with you.
JoAnn, it may indeed be the water! especially as you muse lakeside.
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