Books etc.

Rain today. A day for staying in and watching the rain, not going out in it. Well, not until the rain stopped and the sun suddenly appeared late in the afternoon anyway. 

My blip is a selection of the books I have been reading/perusing, Gordon has a completely different set.  I am enjoying ‘Dombey and Son’ far more than I thought I would. It’s a long while since I read Dickens and had forgotten how clever and gleeful his work is. I love here the way the impact of the railway is described. 

Extra - last night’s sunset.



The Booker Prize

The winner will be announced this evening. Here are the books on the shortlist. Here are a few of my thoughts: 

I have read each of the six books at least once, although I gave up with ‘Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ as I was getting lost with what was going on.  

For the last few years I have had by this time a fairly good idea as to what will win and have usually been right. This year is a very tricky one - there are good reasons why each of the books could win, but also reasons why it shouldn’t win. They are all good books that are worth reading but there isn’t one book that stands out from the rest. Which makes it a good shortlist, but not easy to predict the winner. 

Three of the books are substantial, exuberant stories dealing with world issues. All worth the time spent on them, but to me they all have faults. 

In making any sort of personal decision, I am remembering the Chair’s words about skilful editing and the power of small books, as well as thinking about the books I have enjoyed most. On this basis I think the winner will be one of ‘Oh William!’ ‘Small Things Like These’, ‘Treacle Walker.’ Each of these is perfect, written by an established author who knows what they are doing, carefully edited with not a word out of place and yet dealing thoughtfully with human issues/relationships. 

I would like ‘Small Things Like These’ to win and that is my prediction. 
However, it could just as easily be ‘Treacle Walker’ and I would be delighted. 

I am ready to be completely wrong. If the judges will go for one of the bigger books, I won’t be surprised or unhappy.