... be prepared to do a lot of reading.
"In January, a box of books was delivered to my house, the first of many to arrive, with a steadiness that would at times feel overwhelming. I was about to spend the year as a Booker judge.All my life I have dreamed of having swathes of time filled with nothing but reading. Yet as I stared at that first tranche of books, my overriding feeling was apprehension. Awarding a prize with the power to transform literary history, as well as the winner’s career, isn’t a task to take lightly. Plus, I’d been warned that each judge would be required to read more than 150 books over seven months..."
I had to do the mental math twice to appreciate how much reading that is.
I have featured a couple Booker Prize winners in TYWKIWDBI recently (The Blind Assassin, Prophet Song), so I'll try the new one (I'm 82nd on our library wait list for 18 copies, so it will take a while).
Orbital is worth waiting for. I read it a first time and immediately reread it.
ReplyDeleteYou have to wonder if that judging system is decent and fair.
ReplyDeleteDecent because it is quite an ask for someone to commit to such a task. Do those jury members put their regular life on hold during that time? Indeed the article points out some issues in that direction.
And fair, because one has to wonder if the very select group of people who do read all those books have enough time to actually properly evaluate all those books.
And on the fairness, how limiting is this requirement on the membership of the jury? This enormous time commitment limits being a member of the jury to very few people.
Surely, a better, more fair and less taxing system can be devised.