Booker Prize Winners - how many have you read?

buck65 · 13-11-2015 1:42pm #1

http://www.goodreads.com/award/show/13-man-booker-prize

11 for me including this years winner which I am currently reading. What about y'all?

Ice Storm · 13-11-2015 2:45pm

I've read 13, which is more than I expected!

I bought a collection a few years back 'Best of the Booker' and I think about 6 of what I've read was from that.

The Blind Assassin was probably my favourite.

I didn't realise that Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha had won; I read that around the time it came out so I must have been about 10!

Earthhorse · 13-11-2015 5:20pm

Just the one: The White Tiger.

Thought the first half of it was great. Really made me laugh my ass off. But the second half tailed into a typical literary read.

Swiper the fox · 14-11-2015 10:43am

I've read 10 which was actually less than I expected as I remember a time when I used to judge it as a barometer of quality, I got burned a few times
My favourite is probably Remains of the Day or Vernon God Little.
I once read the Bone People while I was in New Zealand, it was the only book I had on a long trek with a few overnights, otherwise I wouldn't have stuck with it, it is the strangest book I have ever read, couldn't make head nor tail of it to be honest.

Prenderb · 14-11-2015 10:50am

I've read a good few. I even started a project a few years back to go back and read all the winners. That didn't work, much like Swiper I found quality to be much more variable than you'd expect and soon gave up.

(Unnecessary) Complexity of language and plot in many cases made it difficult, as also the size of some of the books. The 2015 winner is enormous! And some of the books are just terrible. I found "The Sea" for example to be a monumental chore.

scriba · 14-11-2015 10:56am

5 for me, my favourite of which being The Remains of the Day. I've read more listed books than winners, for some reason.

Prenderb wrote: »

And some of the books are just terrible. I found "The Sea" for example to be a monumental chore.

Amen.

Rabo Karabekian · 14-11-2015 5:04pm

6 for me. I was expecting much less, as I tend to steer clear of book lists or winners of prizes. Remains of the Day would be my favourite of the ones I read.

wreade1872 · 15-11-2015 3:28pm

Zero, zilch, nothing, nada. I think most of my reading predates literary awards

.
The only thing i've ever read which i know got an award is 'Briefing for a Descent into Hell by Doris Lessing' which got a Noble, apart from that it looks like i'm off the standard literary path.

Manach · 15-11-2015 3:34pm

0.
Other awards, more in the line of history or speculative fiction books would likely have more hits.

Dirty Dingus McGee · 15-11-2015 4:51pm

I've read 3.

The Sense of an Ending,Disgrace and the English Patient.

I've have few of the winners on my shelf but haven't got round to them yet.

Dibble · 16-11-2015 1:58pm

I've read 13 and am currently reading '97 winner The God of Small Things.

The Blind Assassin, The Life of Pi and Schindler's Ark stand out for me.

Das Kitty · 16-11-2015 5:29pm

Five.

I loved Paddy Clarke and Life of Pi when I first read them.

This year's one is hard work and not very rewarding, all told. It's awfully long. You could easily cut a third of it out and lose nothing.

scriba · 18-11-2015 10:04am

I've owned The God of Small Things since it came out and I still haven't read it.

katydid · 27-11-2015 3:24pm

buck65 wrote: »

http://www.goodreads.com/award/show/13-man-booker-prize

11 for me including this years winner which I am currently reading. What about y'all?

15 of those on the first page. I have Oscar and Lucinda on my shelf for ages but haven't got round to reading it.

catbear · 27-11-2015 4:19pm

0 read although I started the Finkler Question and I've Wolf Hall sitting on my book shelf.
I started Life of Pi and abandoned it very quickly, saw the movie and felt very meh about it.

DexysGrl · 29-11-2015 12:22am

I've read about 8 of them and I own a few more that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. Like another poster said, I used to use the Booker Prize as a way to judge reads and I got burned too... now I just go with the blurb on the back of the book

GLaDOS · 30-11-2015 10:36am

Only one, The True History of the Kelly Gang. Read it as part of my comparative study for the Leaving Cert. I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed it, mostly due to the spelling/grammar.

Eugene Norman · 30-11-2015 10:43am

13.

I didn't like Wolf Hall. Controversially.

The Sea was ok for Banville. He has a style of writing that grates for me.

Eugene Norman · 30-11-2015 10:44am

I liked Remains of the Day and The luminaries the best.

catbear · 30-11-2015 6:24pm

Eugene Norman wrote: »

I liked Remains of the Day and The luminaries the best.

I heard that the Luminaries is good for the most part but dies in the last quarter, did you find that?
Plus I agree with you about Banvilles style.

Eugene Norman · 30-11-2015 11:34pm

catbear wrote: »

I heard that the Luminaries is good for the most part but dies in the last quarter, did you find that?
Plus I agree with you about Banvilles style.

It does a bit. But it's not a very literary Booker prize winner ( in the sense of that kind of stilted prose you sometimes get).

I admired wolf hall to a large extent but the writing was... Odd. She had this thing with the pronouns. Cromwell was always he. But other people were sometimes he, and she ignored conventional rules (the last person you name gets the pronoun until you name somebody else and then they are referenced in the next pronoun).

buck65 · 08-12-2015 2:34pm

I'm very nearly finished this year's Booker winner, Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings. Whilst I agree with the earlier poster's comment about it dragging a bit, I am finding the last 200 pages or so fascinating and page turning. It does take a while to get used of the language and numerous characters but persevere with it and it unfolds into a great story. Loving the New York mid 80s sections.

Count Greffi · 09-12-2015 2:15pm

JM Coetzee has won the Booker twice as well as the Nobel Prize yet when I ask any Saffas about him they've invariably never heard of him!? I've enjoyed all the Booker winners I've read though disgracefully for a Wexford man I still haven't read The Sea (or The Gathering).

Swiper the fox · 09-12-2015 4:56pm

Coetzee's prose would be high brow for even very experienced readers but it's strange to think that South African's haven't heard of him, the same is probably true of Banville though.

writerful · 13-01-2016 2:41am

Earthhorse wrote: »

But the second half tailed into a typical literary read.

What is a typical literary read?

fjon · 13-01-2016 6:18pm

I've read 22. I've found that I've enjoyed about half of them - some of them are nicely written but just plain boring.
Looking at the list here's what I enjoyed:

The White Tiger
Vernon God Little
Life of Pi
Disgrace
Amsterdam
The God of Small Things
Paddy Clarke
Possession
Mightnight's Children

Xofpod · 22-02-2016 4:33pm

Surprised myself that I had read 17. Of those, the only ones that disappointed were G and Oscar & Lucinda. And Amsterdam was pretty weak; kind of like the sympathy Oscar people win for much better earlier films.

Booker Prize Winners - how many have you read?

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