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Howard Jacobson wins the 2010 Man Booker Prize

Howard Jacobson has just won the 2010 Booker Prize for The Finkler Question. This is the second year running that my least favourite book from the short list has won. I just didn’t find The Finkler Question funny and couldn’t even bring myself to finish it.

The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson (DNF)

Next year I highly recommend that you all place bets on my least favourite book from the short list – you’ll probably have a very high chance of winning lots of money!

31 replies on “Howard Jacobson wins the 2010 Man Booker Prize”

I’ve not even picked this one up. Of the long list (let alone the short list), this was the book in which I was least interested. I’ll still read the other nominees, though. I might not agree with the winner, but the awards themselves opened my eyes to some great fiction this year.

Literate Housewife, It never appealed to me either, but occasionally books surprise me. Unfortunately it wasn’t the case this time 🙁

I agree that the Booker prize has introduced me to some fantastic fiction this year – I’d never have read Skippy Dies or C without it. I still love book prizes!

I guess I will never understand how they judge these books since I trust your opinion and you didn’t even finish this one!

Isn’t it funny the books which win? I was shocked that The Graveyard Book won the Newbery last year, and often don’t care terribly for the ones that have currently won the Pulitzer. Don’t even get me started on the last decade of movies which have won an Oscar! 😉

Oh No Jackie — I hope you are not losing your touch here…LOL

Sorry this did not work for you, but happy for the author.

Very disappointing – I didn’t make it past the synopsis. I had a feeling that Peter Carey wouldn’t win for a third time, that Emma Donoghue had too much buzz, and that this wasn’t the right book for Andrea Levy to win, but I would have prefered one of the other two.

I still can’t believe that David Mitchell wasn’t shortlisted and that Jon McGregor wasn’t even longlisted. We’re definitely due a winner we like next year Jackie!

Never mind Jackie. Having looked at the list of judges, I didn’t think that the winner was going to be one for me this year and sure enough it isn’t!

That post made me laugh… Still, I wasn’t especially keen on reading this one so hopefully it means that less people will order the other ones at the library!

Don’t you get the feeling they’re just trying to surprise us, that the actual quality of the book is secondary?

They know there’ll be much more discussion around the one that shouldn’t have got it than the best (but less surprising) option…

Golly, what a bummer. I admit, I ran over here (if you can do that in this virtual book blog world) to see what you thought of the announcement. I consider you my Booker-Go-To blog. 🙂

Oh, Jackie! Of the finalists, this is the one that interested me the least… I was pretty sure C wasn’t going to win, but I kind of thought Room might, since it has been so enjoyed by readers. Didn’t expect this one, probably because I kind of forgot it made it to the finals! But as you said, for the Booker 2011, we’ll know how to vote! 😉

I tend not to like most books that make the shortlist of big literary prizes… so I’m not too surprised that one of your DNF/least favourites took the prize. Oh well. Just making it on the shortlist does good things for sales, so all the other books “won” something too! 🙂

Ha! I still haven’t read this one, but unlike the Carey, which doesn’t seem to let me pick it up off the shelf, this one actually appeals to me. I hope to get to it soon though. It is disappointing Room didn’t win, but I hope you have better luck enjoying the winning novel next year!

I thought of you when I read that this year’s Man Booker winner was chosen. I wondered what you’d that of the book but couldn’t remember which made me think that was a bad sign! I haven’t read any of the books on the short list but I have read their synopsises and I was surprised that Howard Jabobson’s book was the winner. I’m not going to run out to buy this one but there are several others from the short and long lists I would like to read.

~ Amy

Yes I thought of you too Jackie, when I heard that Jacobson had won…. So sorry and I will read Skippy Dies and probably C, purely on your recommendation. I finally did manage to pin down Tom Sutcliffe yesterday (one of the judges) for an interview for the site and he would admit whether or not his favourite had won, since the judges agreed not to.. However he did say he was “very happy with the result”. That does sound very negative written down, but you’ll have to wait until I’ve edited it to hear that he did indeed sound quite pleased….

Nicky, I look forward to listening to the interview. I do know that three of the judges voted for The Finkler Question and two for Parrot and Olivier – so whoever he voted for his reading tastes don’t match with mine 🙁

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