It’s voting time on the Not the Booker prize. Or almost. First, a quick recap of events so far and a refresher on the rules. Following an enjoyable and only slightly confusing round of voting, we ended up with six novels on our shortlist. These were, in alphabetical order:
1) Louis Armand – Cairo
2) Tony Black – The Last Tiger
3) Iain Maloney – First Time Solo
4) Mahesh Rao – The Smoke Is Rising
5) Simon Sylvester – The Visitors
6) Donna Tartt – The Goldfinch
The above list also provides links to all my reviews and the excellent discussion beneath them. And just in case you’re feeling lazy, here are those same reviews in four-word bites:
1) Oh please God no.
2) Thanks, that’s much better.
3) Meh, fine, OK, meh.
4) Slow burning, high quality.
5) Nice try, weak ending.
6) Long book is long.
So much for my opinions. The excellent thing about this stage of the competition is that they don’t matter. What matters is what you think. And our panel of judges – but we’ll get to them in a minute. For now, you. At this stage, we’re asking for one reader, one vote. You can vote by posting in the comments. Please make it easy for us by writing the word “vote” and then specifying the name of the book you’re going for and the author at the start of your comment. We’d also like to see round about 50 words explaining this decision. Oh, and don’t worry if you’ve changed your mind during the course of the competition. I refer you to Rule nine: “Readers may vote for only one title at this stage – as before, changes of mind will be governed by clause four on indecision. A vote in support of one book at shortlist stage does not rule out a subsequent valid vote in support of a different book to win the Competition. Reviews may be written at any time before a vote is cast. Votes received after midnight on 12 October will not be counted.”
While I’m dwelling on our glorious terms and conditions, let’s also look at Rule 10:
“Three readers will be selected by the Guardian to form a panel of judges from those readers who have made substantial contributions to the discussion of the shortlisted books. The process by which these readers are chosen is left studiously vague and is at the Guardian’s discretion. These judges undertake to read at least three of the six-book shortlist before the final judging meeting.”
That mysterious process has now been carried out and I’m pleased to introduce three excellent judges.
We have:
Jayne Whyte
Known round these parts as eletha, Jayne is a a freelance copywriter and proofreader. She writes about books for the excellent Workshy Fop and you can find her on twitter @elthawhyte. I asked Jayne to recommend three books and she went for The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Frost in May by Antonia White, and I Claudius by Robert Graves.
She says:
The Handmaid’s Tale – I’ve always been drawn to dystopian novels and films and I think this one, where women’s hard-won rights are removed by a theocratic dictatorship, has stayed relevant over the years.
Frost in May is the story of a child who is put under impossible pressure to be perfect by her father and the teachers at her convent school. It’s an interesting study of what happens when a child isn’t allowed a personality of her own.
I Claudius is an insider’s view of the Roman Imperial family. I discovered this book when I was a teenager and it’s what finally got me into history after the boredom of studying it at school.
William Rycroft
William posts on the Guardian as justwilliamsluck. He is an actor, voice artist and book blogger. When not on stage he can be heard narrating audiobooks or talking about them on his blog channel on You Tube, Just William’s Luck. You can also find him on Twitter @iwilltweet. He came up with a fine trio of book recommendations:
Dept of Speculation by Jenny Offill – The best novel I’ve read recently.
All Quiet on the Western Front – With the anniversary of WW1 it’s the perfect time to read a genuine classic.
Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware – I’m a big graphic novel fan and this man is a genius.
By dint of more superb reviewing work on the shortlisted books, we have a judge returning from last year.
Vic James produces current affairs documentaries for BBC2 and Channel 4, and has spent years trying to persuade commissioners that we need more (any) TV shows about books. She’s just completed her first novel, a political thriller. She’s chosen three recently read books to recommend:
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth is a raw, full-blooded novel about post-Conquest Britain, and I am still gutted I heard about it just too late to become one of the crowdfunders.
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor is about an awful 15-year-old schoolgirl who becomes a bestselling author; it was first published in 1957, but is spot-on for today’s literary culture.
Clariel by Garth Nix is a prequel to Nix’s intricate, compelling and moving Old Kingdom fantasy trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen) that he began publishing nearly 20 years ago.
I’ll be talking to these fantastically knowledgable people on a videolink at 11am on 13 October 2013 and we’ll broadcast the discussion live. We’ll also put up the results of the public vote then. And in case you’re wondering how all that is going to shake out, I refer you to Rule 11:
“A judging meeting will be organised online on the morning of 13 October 2013. The winner of the public vote will be allotted two votes at this meeting. The reader judges will each have one vote and will come to a decision on the overall winner in a live online event, with Sam Jordison wielding a casting vote, if required. And no kvetching – that’s that.”
So there we have it, until next Monday. Now comes the important business of voting. Hit it!
