The (American) National Book Awards have been announcing longlists all week -- one category revealed each day -- but the fiction list, due to be unveiled only today was 'leaked' yesterday, so they're now already all up.
[The National Book Foundation foolishly tried to 'embargo' the fiction list, revealing it to some journalists and expecting them not to jump the gun; someone goofed, a popular website missed or misread the memo and posted the information (for a while), and once the cat was out of the bag The New York Times considered it fair game and they and everyone piled on.
To their credit, the NBF handled the situation very well, jumping right on board and reacting philosophically to the leak.]
As usual, I haven't read, much less reviewed any of the titles in any of the categories -- though at least I actually have a copy of ... one of them (Lila, by Marilynne Robinson).
Meanwhile, the Americans can at least lord over the whiny Man Booker judges that they consider a much larger pool of books: while this year's Man Booker longlist was selected from a mere 154 books, the National Book Foundation reports that there were 417 books (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) submitted for the fiction prize, and 494 books (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) submitted for the non-fiction prize. Disappointingly, however, the National Book Awards, like the Man Booker, don't reveal the titles that were submitted and considered in each category.
As usual, I haven't read, much less reviewed any of the titles in any of the categories -- though at least I actually have a copy of ... one of them (Lila, by Marilynne Robinson).
Meanwhile, the Americans can at least lord over the whiny Man Booker judges that they consider a much larger pool of books: while this year's Man Booker longlist was selected from a mere 154 books, the National Book Foundation reports that there were 417 books (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) submitted for the fiction prize, and 494 books (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) submitted for the non-fiction prize. Disappointingly, however, the National Book Awards, like the Man Booker, don't reveal the titles that were submitted and considered in each category.