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jcoyne

John's bookshelf

It's all so mysterious...

Currently reading

The Lions of al-Rassan
Guy Gavriel Kay
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays
David Foster Wallace
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Jared Diamond
Dune
Frank Herbert
"The rereading process made it clear to me why certain things happen with the Booker.

We read all the entered books, that’s 151 books. Then we reread the long list to make the short list. Then we reread the shortlist to get the winner. So you have to read the winner three times.

A crime novel would struggle in these circumstances. It can be great the first time. The second time you can admire the way the solution was set up. But would it bear a third reading?

Look at comic novels. A joke has to be very funny to be funny three times. In previous years I was disappointed a comic novel didn’t get through. Now I understand what that pressure is. I loved a novel such as A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz, but would it have been as good on that crucial third reading?

So it does reward seriousness. It does reward the books that can actually deliver on a third reading. "

Booker Prize judge, Stuart Kelly, in an interview with Edd McCracken at bookriot.com