Preparing for the Best Translated Book Award longlist

       Like the other judges for the Best Translated Book Award, I am preparing to vote for the longlist (we begin voting 1 March; the longlist of twenty-five titles will be announced 11 March). We've been writing posts about the whole judging process for the past few months, and my final one, on trying to make those Final Selections, is now up at Three Percent.
       I wrote the post more than a week ago, and by now more, rather than fewer titles, are in my mix as the day approaches -- and I'm still trying to get a few more books under my belt that look like they might be worth a closer look (two promising-sounding titles I hadn't previously seen arrived just yesterday ...). I don't have the proper distance yet -- and who knows what the actual longlist will turn out looking like (last year's top twenty-five only had seven of my top ten) -- but I don't think we've ever had this deep a field of good books, a few dozen worthies (along with a lot of crap, I hasten to add, with especially the mystery-titles a major disappointment this year). (I've actually been tempted to write a post on the worst of the books -- but leaving aside that that would be too unkind, there are just too many to choose from, too .....)