Hot Topics for 05.12.08

>> “Nobel Prize was a bloody disaster”
Doris Lessing says winning the award stopped her writing. Don’t miss the dramatic photo!

>> Just Business: The fall of book publishing’s last don
On the fall of Peter Olson, “the godfather of Random House.” (They’re really working their metaphor.)

>> Sun never sets on Booker's six best
The list of candidates for the Best of the Booker prize has been narrowed to six.

>> The State of Biography
As seen by Readerville contributor Carl Rollyson.

>> Keith Gessen and Nicholson Baker
Audio interviews from Inside Higher Ed and The Guardian, respectively.

Comments

[lynn c]

This makes me want to move Midnight's Children up on my TBR list. I've heard it's wonderful, yet I haven't read it yet.

As much as I liked Oscar and Lucinda, especially the end, I thought it was a slow, slow read. Disgrace was okay, but I didn't love it as much as everyone else seemed to. I did think Ghost Road was the best of that trilogy.

You know, I often find that I disagree with the Booker choices.

[Kat Warren]

I'm not always on board with the Booker final selection but I adore its long list like nobody's business.

[Gayla]

In general, I love the Booker longlist, am mildly disappointed by the shortlist, and am outraged by the prize recipient.

[Miriam]

I like that list even though I haven't read Oscar and Lucinda or The Conservationist. I loved all four of the other selections, admire Gordimer and have heard enough good things about the Carey to think it belongs there.

And Gayla, your funny, that's pretty well a summation of my feelings about the Booker. Although I'm not always outraged (as is evinced by my love of the four above).

[ana purna]

That photo of Lessing is hilarious. I bet she'd complain if they hanged her with a new rope.

[Karen Templer]

It's priceless, that photo.

[Karen Templer]

The Booker odds at the moment; they've got Rushdie in the lead at 5-1.

[Kat Warren]

Yes, that Lessing photo is a hoot. It also was snapped last fall when she returned to her home where she was met with scores of reporters and photographers who told her she'd won the Nobel. That was how she learned the news. In that context the photo is touching rather than hootful.

[Kat Warren]

With regard to the Booker's Booker, I'm rooting for Peter Carey.