I'm signing off for the weekend now.
But before I go, there's just time to mention that a Waterstone's reading group from Leeds has helped to judge the Guardian First Book Award 2010.
The reading group of seven book enthusiasts – recruited by the Leeds branch of the store and led by a Waterstone's member of staff – had to read ten books in just eight weeks in order to help whittle down the longlist to the final shortlist of five.
The shortlist for the Guardian First Book Award 2010, in association with Waterstone's, has been revealed today. The shortlisted books are:
Fiction
· Boxer, Beetle, by Ned Beauman, Sceptre
· Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto, by Maile Chapman, Jonathan Cape
· Black Mamba Boy, by Nadifa Mohamed, HarperCollins
Non-fiction
· Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, by Kathryn Schulz, Portobello Books· Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Virgina Woolf to John Piper, by Alexandra Harris (Thames & Hudson)
Along with the Leeds reading group – as well as four other regional groups around the UK - the shortlist was decided by a celebrity judging panel, including actress Diana Quick and academic and biographer Richard Holmes.
Guardian literary editor, Claire Armitstead, who chairs the judging panel, said:
"This brilliant shortlist reflects one of the year's big literary themes - how to tell stories in our new era. Do you go back, like Nadifa Mohamed, to traditional forms of storytelling, or forwards, like Ned Beauman, into bravura post-modern flights of imagination? Is it possible, like Maile Chapman, to make old women interesting?"How does one find forms capable of challenging the orthodoxies of 20th century art, as Alexandra Harris does in Romantic Moderns, or interrogate basic societal assumptions, as Kathryn Schulz does in Being Wrong. Each of these books provides its own very different answer, and it is thrilling that our judges and the Waterstone's reading groups have chosen five such rich and challenging works."
The overall winner of the Award will be announced on Wednesday 1 December.
The Guardian First Book Award is open to all first-time authors writing in English, or translated into English, across all genres. Established in 1999, the award aims to recognise and reward the finest new writing talent, awarding a £10,000 prize plus an advertising package in the Guardian and the Observer for an author's first book published in 2010.
Do you agree with the nominations? Have your say in the comments section below.
Have a good 'un!
Clarification: It's been brought to my attention that the information I received on this matter was incorrect - Waterstone's reading group in Leeds was not involved in the Guardian First Book Award 2010. Apologies for the confusion.
