Sunday 2 August 2009

'Reading' and Reading

We are told that the Man Booker Prize judges have, in less than seven months, 'read' 132 novels. Am I alone in finding it somewhat unlikely that these busy public figures have found time in their lives to read something like five novels a week? I don't think I'd be able to manage that even if I devoted every waking hour to it - and if I did, what would I have achieved, apart from a feat of endurance? I certainly wouldn't remember anything much (if anything at all) of the endless book blur whizzing past my tired eyes. I've written before about reading and forgetting - and this morning, on the radio, the excellent Craig Brown spoke with commendable candour on his own literary amnesia, freely admitting that he remembered only the odd snippet, if anything, of books he had read - and reviewed! - the previous week. The Booker pretence of having read and remembered such a ludicrous number of books (and it grows larger every year) gets more and more absurd. The truth is that the judges will have skimmed most of them, made up their minds pretty fast on which titles not to proceed with, maybe revisited a few in the course of the whittling down process. None of these novels will have been properly digested - still less enjoyed - in the way of a book read at leisure, at the reader's own speed. For this reason, no doubt, many a good title - one that demands to be properly, fully read - slips through the net, and many a less good one ends up on the shortlist. This is to say nothing of the vagaries of panel discussion, which can throw up the most unlikely winners. Never mind - at least this year Me Cheeta made the longlist. That's a book I'd recommend anyone to read. At leisure.

6 comments:

  1. I think I know how they do it, because I do an annual omnibus fiction review for an American lit. mag. At the moment, in fact, I am staring at about twenty books they've sent me so far, of which I have read one in its entirety. And that's how: You start reading. If you are not grabbed, you start skimming. You get the gist, but it ain't your cuppa. Out of 100 novels, there will be perhaps ten that you *really* want to read, slowly and deeply. Your selections will come from there.

    See? Sorted.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Having had long experience in this field, I can assure you that it's quite straightforward. The key is to divide and conquer. You may have, say, 100 books but you also have one PA, two research assistants, an office temp, and one wife. That's five people who each take home 20 books. They have, on average, three friends. So, each pile of 20 is split between four people, leaving them to read five books each. All that's left is for me to skim read their verdicts (scribbled onto the flyleaf) and choose the three books I will actually read and quote when asked about my favourites.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dick - you've cracked it! That's what I'll do when the call comes from the Booker people...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Susan - I don't envy you that pile of books. Good luck with it...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Im now reading Me Cheeta! I found a hardback copy in the local oxfam for a fiver yesterday- only done the first chapter but loving it already! Although I am unsure as to the truth of the anecdotes - is it supposed to be that the anecdotes are true, and are retold in full gory detail because a monkey is 'unsue-able', or are they as jumbled with reality as a monkey writing an autobiography? I'm confused.

    anyway, good to see it's on the booker list!

    ReplyDelete
  6. finished Me Cheeta -

    got bored of it by half way :(

    ReplyDelete