So prized is a slot on the BBC's new television arts show that its planners feel obliged to reassure publishers that somebody has read all the books submitted - and filled in a piece of paper to prove it.
The show is Page Turners, an attempt by the BBC to steal the mantle of Richard and Judy, the current patron saints of the book trade.
Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan's teatime Channel 4 chat show has delighted the trade with the boost it gives to sales of titles featured on it. Last year's winning book, Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, sold over a million copies. The runner-up, Joseph O'Connor's Star of the Sea, enjoyed a 350% sales increase.
Announcing a shortlist of 24 titles for its rival forthcoming daytime show from a 300-strong publishers' list of hopefuls, BBC1 added yesterday: "Each of the books was reviewed by a member of staff from the BBC or Princess Productions, who completed a review form for every book read."
This was a hint that Page Turners promises not to descend to the depths of the long-established traditional literary prizes, the Booker and the Whitbread, where judges have occasionally accused fellow-judges of failing to read all the hundreds of entries - or of dividing them up between colleagues to read. Princess Productions is the company behind Page Turners, which will be fronted by Jeremy Vine.
The programme, due to start in a morning slot in March, will have a more complicated but still populist structure borrowed from the BBC's Big Read polls. The organisers said every title would be "championed by some of the biggest authors and popular names from the entertainment world".
The judges' brief was to choose titles with broad appeal which are yet "distinctive and surprising". The shortlist includes Bob Dylan's memoirs; Feast: Food That Celebrates Life, by Nigella Lawson; and the novelist Kazuo Ishiguro's new story Never Let Me Go.
The BBC is not the only broadcaster hoping to cash in on the success of Richard and Judy's Book Club, with ITV also planning a prime-time show later this year called Between the Covers.
The popularisation of literary television began in 1996 when Oprah Winfrey launched her onscreen book club in the US, massively increasing the sales of featured books. But while publishers have cheered the boost in sales, the feature has also caused controversy with a series of authors accusing it of turning books into a marketing commodity.
Beeb's 24 to outdo Channel 4
About Grace by Anthony Doerr
Becoming Strangers by Louise Dean
Chronicles Volume One by Bob Dylan
Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin
Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim by David Sedaris
Fools Rush In by Bill Carter
How To Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
Not The End Of The World by Geraldine McCaughrean
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
How To Be A Bad Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes
Feast: Food That Celebrates Life by Nigella Lawson
Inside Hitler's Bunker by Joachim Fest
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Understudy by David Nicholls
The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
Light On Snow by Anita Shreve
Let Me Go by Helga Schneider
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe
Leonardo da Vinci: The Flights Of The Mind by Charles Nicholl
Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami
We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen
