― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 9 September 2006 12:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― sandy mc (sandy mc), Saturday, 9 September 2006 12:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Saturday, 9 September 2006 14:04 (seventeen years ago) link
I am never gonna watch the movie tho.
― Why does my IQ changes? (noodle vague), Sunday, 10 September 2006 09:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― Why does my IQ changes? (noodle vague), Sunday, 10 September 2006 09:17 (seventeen years ago) link
8 is my total.
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Sunday, 10 September 2006 17:54 (seventeen years ago) link
2002 Life of Pi by Yann Martel1998 Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift1990 Possession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt
And I saw three of the movies based on books of this list:
1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (co-winner)1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro1982 Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
In retrospective I liked those movies better than the books. Which seems a bit strange.
― Ionica (Ionica), Monday, 11 September 2006 08:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― Matt (Matt), Monday, 11 September 2006 10:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― frankiemachine (frankiemachine), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Saturday, 16 September 2006 08:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 16 September 2006 16:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 21 September 2006 06:20 (seventeen years ago) link
so did anyone read the 2008 winner : Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger?
― Zeno, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 09:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Zero. However I'd be interested in reading 'Midnight's Children' after catching a repeat of the Arena doc on the book. Maybe Ishiguro and Barker at some point.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 10:09 (fifteen years ago) link
AUSSSIEAUSSIE
― wilter, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 10:10 (fifteen years ago) link
What a shitty looking prize:
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/10/15/adiga300x230.jpg
― Doghouse O RLY (G00blar), Wednesday, 15 October 2008 10:15 (fifteen years ago) link
as long as the $$$ looks nice..
― Zeno, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 10:51 (fifteen years ago) link
Six:2004 The Line of Beauty - just read this, it's fantastic. Enormously recommended2002 Life of Pi - throwaway, really, but nice enough. Points off for (I suspect) being a book that's really about storytelling1999 Disgrace - aye, great. It must've been a cliffhanger, I remember finishing it while walking through Westminster tube station as I needed to get somewhere and I couldn't wait to find out what happened. That said, I can't remember much about it now1998 Amsterdam - shockingly bad. Pointless, no-one in it you'd care about. The praise lavished on McEwan, while occasionally deserved and he's undeniably a great prosewriter, is going to look silly in future. Basically doesn't have much to say1994 How Late It Was, How Late - fine, a bit bleak really, but a nice thing to win a prize like this1992 The English Patient - excellent, a great read, full of interesting little details and memorable scenes, like Captain Corelli's Mandolin (though it doesn't seem to have won many prizes)
(I own eight of the others, to my shame)
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 17:45 (fifteen years ago) link
i have read 14 but like five were because of a contemp brit fiction class i took and one other, the hollinghurst, i won as a prize in that class for a seminar i gave. the nadine gordimer novel is quite beautiful maybe my fav from that list.
i thought in the skin of the lion had won?? love that book >>> english patient.
― ******* (Lamp), Wednesday, 15 October 2008 19:49 (fifteen years ago) link
1998 Amsterdam - shockingly bad. Pointless, no-one in it you'd care about. The praise lavished on McEwan, while occasionally deserved and he's undeniably a great prosewriter, is going to look silly in future. Basically doesn't have much to say
Sooooooooooooooo otm
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 19:50 (fifteen years ago) link
Columbia College Class of 1997 (and Salutatorian)
― gabbneb, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 19:56 (fifteen years ago) link
were u friends?
― ******* (Lamp), Wednesday, 15 October 2008 19:56 (fifteen years ago) link
2005 The Sea by John Banville2004 The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst2002 Life of Pi by Yann Martel1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (co-winner)1990 Possession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt
― Michael White, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 20:12 (fifteen years ago) link
2002 Life of Pi by Yann Martel2001 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
― metametadata (n/a), Wednesday, 15 October 2008 20:14 (fifteen years ago) link
2001 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey1998 Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (co-winner)1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie 1978 The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 20:19 (fifteen years ago) link
never heard of him
― gabbneb, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 20:20 (fifteen years ago) link
2004 The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst1999 Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
― Doghouse O RLY (G00blar), Wednesday, 15 October 2008 20:21 (fifteen years ago) link
2005 The Sea by John Banville - loved it2004 The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst - loved it, and was really disappointed when I went on to read 'The Swimming-Pool Library'2001 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey - loved it, this and Oscar and Lucinda are Carey's only really great books1999 Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee - broke my heart1998 Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan - really dig McEwan, but this is his worst book, a bit of black fluff1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift - didn't see what all the fuss was about1994 How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman - enjoyed it1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle - OK, but didn't really see what all the fuss was about1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro - loved it1988 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey - see above1987 Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively - it was OK, I guess1986 The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis - everything after 'Lucky Jim' has been a bit of a disappointment for me1984 Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner - dull dull dull1983 Life & Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee - liked it1980 Rites of Passage by William Golding - enjoyed it, though it seemed strangely old-fashioned1979 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald - Fitzgerald is the bee's knees
― James Morrison, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 22:31 (fifteen years ago) link
all my friends loved the bone people so much in the 80's. there is a serious cult for that book.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 22:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Here's the updated list with the three most recent ones added:
2008 The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga2007 The Gathering by Anne Enright2006 The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai2005 The Sea by John Banville2004 The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst2003 Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre2002 Life of Pi by Yann Martel2001 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood1999 Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee1998 Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift1995 The Ghost Road by Pat Barker1994 How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (co-winner)1992 Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (co-winner)1991 The Famished Road by Ben Okri1990 Possession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro1988 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey1987 Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively1986 The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis1985 The Bone People by Keri Hulme1984 Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner1983 Life & Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee1982 Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie1980 Rites of Passage by William Golding1979 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald1978 The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch1977 Staying on by Paul Scott1976 Saville by David Storey1975 Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala1974 The Conservationist by Gordimer1973 The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell1972 G. by John Berger1971 In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul1970 The Elected Member by Bernice. Rubens1969 Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby
--
I think I've read 12, though several of those were so long ago that I can hardly remember if I genuinely have even read them, let alone what they were like, especially as I was too young to really be able to appreciate them. My Dad used to follow the prize quite closely and would buy and read the winner every year, along with a selection of the shortlist that took his fancy, and had a small archive folder of newspaper cuttings about it over the years.
― krakow, Thursday, 16 October 2008 06:58 (fifteen years ago) link
My personal favourite of those I know is Kazuo Ishiguro's "The Remains of the Day", by quite a way. A wonderful book.
― krakow, Thursday, 16 October 2008 07:00 (fifteen years ago) link
One, The Bone People, and I didn't much care for it. Only other I'm likely ever to read is How Late it Was..., I love James Kelman, but mostly the Booker just doesn't like what I do. I've read maybe a hundred shortlisted ones, tho.
― Niles Caulder, Thursday, 16 October 2008 07:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Here's my list. All of them, except possibly The God of Small Things, were worthwhile, and I really loved Last Orders and Remains of the Day.
2005 The Sea by John Banville2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 1985 The Bone People by Keri Hulme 1983 Life & Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee
― franny glass, Thursday, 16 October 2008 19:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Arghh, I forgot that "How Late It Was, How Late" was on there. I think I prefer that to even "Remains Of The Day" actually. Disregard what I said above.
― krakow, Thursday, 16 October 2008 21:10 (fifteen years ago) link
I have still not read any of these books.
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Saturday, 25 October 2008 17:15 (fifteen years ago) link
same here. I'm guessing my first will probably be Midnight's Children (Satanic Verses was great and I'm sort of getting the Rushdie itch again) or The Famished Road (been meaning to read this for a while now; didn't even realize it was a Booker winner)
― The droid army of the legacy press (bernard snowy), Sunday, 26 October 2008 01:31 (fifteen years ago) link
six
1998 Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro1986 The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie1971 In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul
― m coleman, Sunday, 26 October 2008 11:47 (fifteen years ago) link
3: Rites Of Passage, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Vernon God Little
― 100 tons of hardrofl beyond zings (Just got offed), Sunday, 26 October 2008 11:50 (fifteen years ago) link
Just one, sadly. Possession.
― ○◙i shine cuz i genital grind◙○ (roxymuzak), Sunday, 26 October 2008 16:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Does The Sea, not The Sea, the Sea, have any of Banville's trademark descriptions of the sky?
― alimosina, Sunday, 26 October 2008 23:57 (fifteen years ago) link
2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
All three very depressing books, particularly The God of Small Things.
― tron, Monday, 27 October 2008 04:20 (fifteen years ago) link
I've only read this one:2001 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
― o. nate, Tuesday, 28 October 2008 21:13 (fifteen years ago) link
I have read zero of them.
― rubisco (Abbott), Saturday, 1 November 2008 21:59 (fifteen years ago) link
So, Hilary Mante..is she really that good?
― nostormo, Wednesday, 17 October 2012 08:38 (eleven years ago) link
Mantel
― nostormo, Wednesday, 17 October 2012 08:39 (eleven years ago) link
4, ranked (though I enjoyed each of them): The Seige of Krishnapur > Wolf Hall > How late it was, how late > Oscar & Lucinda.Aborted reads: The God of Small Things, Life of Pi.In the queue: The Remains Of the Day.
― calumerio, Wednesday, 17 October 2012 10:10 (eleven years ago) link
xp mantel chat: itt WOLF HALL the book by hilary mantel and the upcoming hbo/bbc miniseries based on the same
― ledge, Wednesday, 17 October 2012 10:12 (eleven years ago) link
2003 Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle 1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (co-winner)
I have 'Life Of Pi' but I havent read it yet
― Michael B Higgins (Michael B), Wednesday, 17 October 2012 20:41 (eleven years ago) link
Two that I recognize and recall, possibly a third one since forgotten. Even with the two I know I read, I was unaware they had any connection to the prize.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 17 October 2012 21:00 (eleven years ago) link
Fuck you DC! I'll never read them now!
― Chip-vill-A (imago), Thursday, 15 October 2020 14:11 (three years ago) link
Nah I should, and will
i really can't recall, it was too long ago. feel free to round my total down to 11 for purposes of booker cred points
― na (NA), Thursday, 15 October 2020 14:58 (three years ago) link
https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2020/november/letter-from-america
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 26 November 2020 14:36 (three years ago) link
It isn’t so much that Scotland has achieved a grown-up reckoning with its social history (warts, booze, paedophiles and all), as that these wounds have become a source of cultural and political capital. Can't wait to visit, on the way to Vatican City! Classick clickbait, and of course no consid of the text atall; has he even read it.
― dow, Thursday, 26 November 2020 16:48 (three years ago) link
Think it was more a report focusing on Scotland attitudes to it's literary culture.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 26 November 2020 17:03 (three years ago) link
Yeah, but I read it as tainting the book by association with/"enabling" those people over there, who seem reduced: is it not possible that some may be nationalist significantly in terms of being anti-Brexit, anti-Tory for considerations that can be concerning beyond those who want to wear haggis and eat kilts and etc.? I mean, since he brought it up. The premise (they're going from one extreme to another) is worth developing, but stopping where he does seems like a dick move.
― dow, Thursday, 26 November 2020 17:59 (three years ago) link
This whole thing of reduction, conflation, sideways inflation is irritating: like on ilx, we'll soon see the annual kneejerk reaction against pollwinners because those people over there like them for the rong reasons/so much/at all, also on ilm I've seen Cardi B compared to Trump because she brags, a New Yorker writer compared Post Malone to Trump, said he pretty much is Trump, rather than another miserable little parasite (which he even looks like he knows he is, on some level)
― dow, Thursday, 26 November 2020 18:08 (three years ago) link
Nothing vs. you for your choice of link, but that's my caffeinated think.
― dow, Thursday, 26 November 2020 19:31 (three years ago) link
I must admit I have prejudged this book. it does sound like frank mccourt transposed. social realism in thatcherite Glasgow does sound on the nose and not necessarily what I want from a contemporary Scottish novel. having said that I really wish that it wasn't made to stand as an artifact of cultural devolution and in a normal country you would be able to write a grim social realist novel without having that kind of baggage attached.
― Politically homely (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 26 November 2020 19:47 (three years ago) link
I know I read Life of Pi and Bone PeopleTHink I may have read The English Patient, know i saw the film or it might stick out better but i do think I read the book too.THink I read Oscar and Lucinda if it's the one about the glass house on a boat, saw film too. Read a few of his around then
have a few of the others of the original cited list lying around the flkat unread.
& have read Wolf Hall, should have read Bring Out the Bodies by now since I found the prose of Wolf Hall really delicious.
only just realising that Bone People was a Booker winner looked like an interesting read when I found it i a Dublin charity or cheap book shop[ in the early 90s. Liked it at the time. Maori interactions and things, I think a maori woman trying to make it i more Western society, but that was like 28 years since i read it.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 26 November 2020 20:06 (three years ago) link
I've read 15 of that list.
Stand outs would be: The Ghost RoadMoon TigerDisgraceThe Life & Times of Michael KHotel Du Lac
I loved The Bone People at the time but I'd be terrified of re-reading it. I went with my now wife to Keri Hulme's home, er, town, when I was in NZ. Okarito, population 8*, on a lonely fly-blown tear of the west coast. We got dropped off up the road and walking in, a fella stopped in his car and offered us a lift. He said he was 'having a bath' that night, in his garden under the stars and we'd be welcome to come along. We didn't go and I think about it all the time.
*she wasn't there, so population 7, I guess.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 26 November 2020 21:07 (three years ago) link
John Banville, winner of the 2005 Booker Prize, has suggested that he could not win it now because he is a straight, white male https://t.co/hNT70dug1Z— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) December 1, 2020
― Number None, Wednesday, 2 December 2020 14:21 (three years ago) link
well i for one am shocked that Banville would come out with this
― Carry On Scamping (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 2 December 2020 14:25 (three years ago) link
I suggest you are a prick and wouldn't win it because everyone has seen through your overwritten shite.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Wednesday, 2 December 2020 16:30 (three years ago) link
i like some of his overwritten shite but yeah, huge prick energy
― Carry On Scamping (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 2 December 2020 16:38 (three years ago) link
Also he's pissed away the last 20 years writing dour, pointless and tedious crime novels, plush a cash-in fake Raymond Chandler, so he's not exactly churning out the masterpieces these days.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 2 December 2020 22:28 (three years ago) link
Hotel du Lac is lovely! A small, extremely earnest thing ('somewhat Sparklike but more modern and lost' was my immediate response, which also puts it in Rhys territory tbh) that nonetheless pulls a number of sly games en route to terminus. Probably fits in second behind TLOB for me now, a book to which this makes a decent counterpoint, perhaps.
― he ain't perfect but fuck me he's a rheillee (imago), Tuesday, 7 September 2021 20:28 (two years ago) link
I've read
2004 The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst2002 Life of Pi by Yann Martel2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood1999 Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle 1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (co-winner)1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 1986 The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis
And that's it. I didn't adore any of them, really... the Coetzee in particular seemed to have a thesis that I instinctively thought was weird and bad even when I read it in my early 20s.
Exception to this, of course, was "The Line Of Beauty", which I'm unashamed to state is one of my favourite novels of all time... not just as an effective work of AIDS-related art, and a commentary on Thatcherism, but such an effective skewering of the bourgeois shittiness of "gay" on the whole.
― what's fgti up to these days? nothing. she's fake (flamboyant goon tie included), Tuesday, 7 September 2021 21:00 (two years ago) link
Yeah it really stands clear, my previous post notwithstanding
― he ain't perfect but fuck me he's a rheillee (imago), Tuesday, 7 September 2021 21:07 (two years ago) link
Since 2005 I've increased my tally from one to six and I thought most of them were fine, but the fact of their Booker Prize was totally irrelevant to my choosing to read them. My participation in I Love Books has been far more influential in leading me to good books.
― it is to laugh, like so, ha! (Aimless), Tuesday, 7 September 2021 21:08 (two years ago) link
Re what Banville said above, just in the last ten years Howard Jacobson, Julian Barnes, and George Saunders have all won. Is he mad that three women and a gay man won in a row after Saunders?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 8 September 2021 00:15 (two years ago) link
the Coetzee in particular seemed to have a thesis that I instinctively thought was weird and bad even when I read it in my early 20s.
― what's fgti up to these days? nothing. she's fake (flamboyant goon tie included), Tuesday, 7 September 2021 23:00 (ye
What's the thesis you didn't like?
― abcfsk, Wednesday, 8 September 2021 11:45 (two years ago) link