Dear Mr Naughtie,
I do hope you and your fellow judges had a delightful time reading the novels entered for the 2009 Booker Prize. I have, regrettably for my pre-Booker reading, allowed myself to be distracted by a Great German Reading Tour this summer and so remain unacquainted with the majority of this year’s contenders. A further distraction in the form of the Edinburgh Book Festival will be taking up most of my reading time in the weeks between now and the shortlist announcement. I would, therefore, be very grateful if, when determining the longlist tomorrow, the 2009 Booker judging panel would accommodate my needs in the following way:
a) Include 3 that I have already read.
b) Supplement with two that aren’t released until September.
c) Add the following 5 that I will be reading in preparation for events at the Edinburgh Book Festival.
d) Bring the list to 13 by allocating to final 3 places from those that are already in my TBR.
There are a number of benefits to this approach. 1) I will not need to purchase any books for the next 2 months; 2) I will be able to contribute knowingly to the shortlist speculation of the coming weeks ; and, most importantly, 3) it will prove that your panel is the most considerate of the last 41 years!
Yours shamelessly,
Lizzy Siddal
Effi Briest - Theodor Fontane (Readalong 
The Beauty Room - Regi Claire
My Mother's Lover - Urs Widmer
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
Noir - Robert Coover
The Taint of Midas - Anne Zouroudi
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
The Duel - Anton Chekhov
The Duel - Heinrich von Kleist
Gillespie and I - Jane Harris
State of Wonder - Ann Patchett
Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake
CIty of Dreadful Night - Peter Guttridge
Shadow Sister - Simone van der Vlugt
A Far Cry From Kensington - Muriel Spark
The Assault - Harry Mulisch
Next World Novella - Matthias Politycki
The Water Theatre - Lindsay Clark
Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen
The Liberation of Celia Kahn - J David Simons
Nocturnes - Kazuo Ishiguro
Hotel Du Lac - Anita Brookner
You are so funny! I love it.
Ha! Ha! Ha! Wonderful!!!
Really good post!
I am hoping that The Wilderness wins the Booker Prize this year, but I am pretty sure that The Children’s Book will win (even though I didn’t enjoy reading it)
You have an interesting selection there – a few I haven’t heard of before. I’d be happy if the judges followed your request – I wouldn’t have that many books left to read either!!
I think your request is very reasonable, and is along the lines that I hope for as well – some I’ve read, some I plan to read already, and some I already want to read. I’ll give them a few slots for new to me books. Good thinking on having a few be future releases.
I was going to accuse you of being self-serving, Lizzy, until I checked your post more closely. The right mix would not only mean that I would not have to buy any books, but would have already read 10. Please add my signature to your letter.
Heee, hee. Brilliant letter. As seven of these are on my TBR list whould you add my name as well?
You should be nearly half happy as you got six of them.
I’m delighted. If I concentrate on the six I have, and Mr Naughtie and co decide that they form the shortlist, then I won’t have to buy any books at all!
My bank manager can rest easy for a while … although resolve is already slipping re Mantel, Foulds and the O’Loughlin. Actually all of them except the Coetzee. As I’ve said before, Coetzee and I don’t mix.
What a wonderful wonderful post!
How do you feel about the finalists really though? Lol!
Hilarious – and what a range of books you have chosen there. That should save them having to any work!
My one choice which I would urge on the panel is The Glass Room by Simon Mawer, by far the best new book I have read in the last 12 months.
“what a range of books you have chosen there. That should save them having to any work!”
Exactly – who needs to read a longlist of 132+ books when you’ve got Lizzy to do the filtering beforehand!