Sunday, January 17, 2010

List of the Day: Man Booker Prize/James Tait Black Memorial Prize Crossovers

Only three books have won both the Man Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize:

Last Orders by Graham Swift in 1996;

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie in 1981; and

G by John Berger in 1972.

This may seem like no more than the answer to a random literary trivia question, but it is very important to those Anglophile readers participating in the Battle of the Prizes, British Version.

State of the Blog, Part Three: The Authors


This is the third part of my winter assessment of my 2009 reading progress and 2010 goals. Part One addressed my various lists. Part Two looked at my challenges.

This post looks at progress on my author lists.

THE AUTHORS



Kingsley Amis
Books read so far: 5/48
Books read in 2009: one (The Alteration)
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one (One Fat Englishman, which I finished already)
Books on my TBR shelf: 6

Cara Black
Books read so far: 2/9
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one, if the one on my TBR shelf is the next in order
Books on my TBR shelf: one

James Lee Burke
Books read so far: 13/17 (Dave Robicheaux series only)
Books read in 2009: 3
  1. Black Cherry Blues
  2. Pegasus Descending
  3. The Tin Roof Blowdown (reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2 or 3 -- I'm almost done with them
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Lee Child

Books read so far: 11/11 (unless he has a new one)
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one if he gets a new one out
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

M. F. K. Fisher
Books read so far: 4/27
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2, but I have not decided which ones
Books on my TBR shelf: 4

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Books read so far: 8/13
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: probably zero, this is a future goal
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Penelope Fitzgerald
Books read so far: 2/9
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (The Bookshop)
Books on my TBR shelf: 2

Richard Ford
Books read so far: 5/10
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: undecided
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Jim Harrison

Books read so far: 19/19 (prose only)
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: zero, unless he has a new prose book this year
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Nick Hornby
Books read so far: 2/11
Books read in 2009: one (High Fidelity, reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: 3
  1. The Polysyllabic Spree (which I already finished)
  2. Housekeeping vs. the Dirt
  3. Shakespeare Wrote for Money
Books on my TBR shelf: one

John Lescroart
Books read so far: 16/17 (Dismus Hardy series and spin offs)
Books read in 2009: one (Betrayal)
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (A Plague of Secrets)
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Elinor Lipman
Books read so far: 4/10
Books read in 2009: 3
  1. My Latest Grievance, reviewed here
  2. The Family Man  
  3. The Inn at Lake Divine
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (Then She Found Me)
Books on my TBR shelf: 2

David Lodge

Books read so far: 2/15 (fiction only)
Books read in 2009: one (Changing Places, reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least 2, but I don't know which ones
Books on my TBR shelf: 8

Ian McEwan

Books read so far: 5/13
Books read in 2009: 2
  1. The Innocent(reviewed here)
  2. Saturday
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one, but I do not have any on my TBR shelf
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Jack Ohman
Books read so far: 5/10
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (Angler Management)

Books on my TBR shelf: one

Anthony Powell
Books read so far: 13/32
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (Venusberg)
Books on my TBR shelf: one

Philip Roth

Books read so far: 8/30
Books read in 2009: one (Goodbye, Columbus: And Five Other Short Stories, reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one, but I haven't decided which one
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

Martin Cruz Smith
Books read so far: 6/6 (Arkady Renko series only)
Books read in 2009: 2
  1. Red Square, reviewed here
  2. Stalin's Ghost
Books I hope to read in 2010: zero, unless he comes out with another one
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Julia Spencer-Fleming
Books read so far: 5/7
Books read in 2009: 3
  1. Out of the Deep I Cry
  2. To Darkness and to Death (reviewed here)
  3. All Mortal Flesh (reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2
  1. I Shall Not Want
  2. One Was a Soldier 
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

William Styron
Books read so far: 2/10
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: probably zero
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Anne Tyler
Books read so far: 4/18
Books read in 2009: one (The Amateur Marriage)
Books I hope to read in 2010: probably one, but I do not know which one
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

John Updike
Books read so far: 8/26
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one, but I do not know which one
Books on my TBR shelf: 9

Andrea U'ren
Books read so far: zero/2
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: hopefully both of them
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Simon Winchester
Books read so far: 5/16
Books read in 2009: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: two
  1. The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
  2. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded
Books on my TBR shelf: one