The Man Booker prize and its like are keeping literature afloat
With the coalition likely to inflict cuts on the BBC, the British Council and the Arts Council, literary prizes become ever more important, says Robert McCrum
I’ve got chronic prize fatigue
Edward Collier: Do the myriad annual prizes serve any purpose other than massaging the egos of the already successful?
Not the Booker prize: Pictures of Lily by Matthew Yorke
Sam Jordison: Written for teenagers – one hopes – this novel reminded me why I avoided such books even as an adolescent
Not the Booker prize: The Canal by Lee Rourke
Although it's very much a novel of ideas, what convinces about this book is its story and writing
Howard Jacobson shouldn’t win the Booker for this novel
The Finkler Question trades on dismal stereotypes of 'Jewishness' all too common in the kind of 'ethnic' fiction that appeals to metropolitan critics
Not the Booker prize: Advice for Strays
Sam Jordison: I was less than convinced by this story of family dysfunction and feline fantasy. But perhaps I was the wrong kind of reader?
Not the Booker prize: Deloume Road by Matthew Hooton
Sam Jordison: Thematically similar to The Cuckoo Boy, Deloume Road is a much quieter kind of novel, with a restrained but compelling story to tell
Very now: Has present-tense narration really taken over fiction?
Philip Pullman has branded the preponderance of this mode of storytelling as a 'silly affectation'. Why should this be?
Call off the hounds: the Not the Booker prize vote stands
After polling disarray to rival the coming of the ConDems, the collective has opted to stick with the original shortlist. Time to actually do some reading!
The Booker prize-shortlisted tale by Damon Galgut that’s both truth and fiction
Ben Williams: Since it's clearly based on autobiographical events, some have asked whether In a Strange Room is really a novel at all. But like all good fiction what it offers is writer's truth
Recount! The Not the Booker prize goes back to the jury
After a rather moot round of voting, we're asking you to cast your vote again in the interests of fairness
The Man Booker shortlist is out: what do you think?
Michelle Pauli: I'm not quite convinced that the shortlist has lived up to the promise of the longlist - but am I wrong?
Vote now for the Not the Booker prize shortlist!
Sam Jordison: Today is polling day for the books blog's coveted award: time to choose which of the many nominated books should make the shortlist
Lights Out in Wonderland by DBC Pierre
The Booker-winning author's toxic rant against the excesses of modern capitalism is doomed to heroic failure, says Tim Adams
Not the Booker prize 2010: nominate now!
Sam Jordison: Fast becoming a pivotal event in the literary calendar, this is the coveted honour decided by readers of the Guardian books blog. It's time to do your jury service