Given that so many people sent so many excellent nominations in for the first round of this year's Not the Booker prize, you might think I'd start this blog by beaming with pleasure at the success of proceedings so far. But I can't, because I have something very important to say beforehand. And if I don't emphasise this point strongly enough, then that wonderful first round of the competition will all count for nothing. So, here goes. Pay careful attention:
You only have until midnight 6 September 2010 – TONIGHT – to get your votes for the shortlist in. That's to say, not very much time at all. So get voting!
Once again, it's a case of one reader, one vote. The five (or possibly six, if things are really close and there's a particularly interesting book coming in sixth) most popular books will then proceed to our shorter-list stage.
As I've noted, the very long list is looking excellent this year. The thing that's most struck me is how many books and authors seem entirely new. Yes, there's also a good strong showing for the kind of books you'd expect to appear in the literary pages and contending for prizes, and I'm pleased to note that quite a few books in the running for the real Booker are on our longer list. I'm even hoping this year that some of them will get through, just so we can see how they stack up against the titles that the judges have missed. But the best thing is the fact that there are so many books that won't have crossed the radar of most people on the literary circuit. So well done you.
Just two quick notes before I sign off and you can get on to the serious business of voting. There are a dozen or so books that were nominated and haven't been included here. That's because the authors don't fit in the Booker criteria, or, as was more often the case, the books were published in the wrong year. If you can't find a book you nominated here and think we've got it wrong, do say so in the comments and we'll look into it. I've also made an executive decision to include the couple of nominations for graphic novels. I couldn't find anything against them in the Booker rules, and thought it might be quite interesting if they got through ... Although, again, let us know if you have objections.
Okay, enough from me. Over to you. Here's the longlist, alphabetically for your convenience:
Dan Abnett – Triumff
Naomi Alderman – The Lessons
Kate Allan – Krakow Waltz
Martin Amis – The Pregnant Widow
Steven Amsterdam – Things We Didn't See Coming
Kate Atkinson – Started Early, Took My Dog
Stephen Baker – Hemispheres
Ned Beauman – Boxer, Beetle
Jonathan Buckley – Contact
Angus Peter Campbell – Archie And The North Wind
Matthew Condon – The Trout Opera
John Connolly – The Gates
Michael Crummey – Galore
DO Dodd – JEW
Emma Donoghue – Room
Louise Doughty – Whatever You Love
Mogue Doyle – Mr Bawman Wants to Tango
Roddy Doyle – The Dead Republic
Nikki Dudley – Ellipsis
Tom Fletcher – The Leaping
Aminatta Forna – The Memory Of Love
Jasper Fforde – Shades Of Grey
Tana French – Faithful Place
William Gibson – Zero History
Grant Gillespie – The Cuckoo Boy
Peter F Hamilton – The Evolutionary Void
Ian Holding – Of Beasts And Beings
Matthew Hooton – Deloume Road
Alan Jamieson – Da Happie Laand
Howard Jacobson – The Finkler Question
Jennifer Johnston – Truth Or Fiction
Anjali Joseph – Saraswati Park
Dmetri Kakmi – Mother Land
Guy Gavriel Kay – Under Heaven
Andrew Kaufman – The Waterproof Bible
Justine Kilkerr – Advice For Strays
MD Lachlan – Wolfsangel
Charles Lambert – Any Human Face
Margo Lanagan – Tender Morsels
Toby Litt – King Death
Michelle Lovric – The Book of Human Skin
Annabel Lyon – The Golden Mean
Tom McCarthy – C
Andrew McGahan – Wonders Of A Godless World
Jon McGregor – Even The Dogs
Ian McDonald – The Dervish House
Emily Mackie – And This Is True
China Miéville – Kraken
Mark Millar and John Romita Junior – Kick Ass
Kei Miller – The Last Warner Woman
David Mitchell – The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Lisa Moore – February
Blake Morrison – The Last Weekend
Neel Mukherjee – A Life Apart
Paul Murray – Skippy Dies
Joseph O'Connor – Ghost Light
Andew O'Hagan – The Life And Times Of Maf The Dog And His Friend Marilyn Monroe
Maggie O'Farrell – The Hand That First Held Mine
Bryan Lee O'Malley – Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
Tony O'Neill – Sick City
Landed – Tim Pears
KJ Parker – The Folding Knife
Anne Peile – Repeat It Today with Tears
DBC Pierre – Lights Out In Wonderland
Alex Preston – This Bleeding City
Tom Rachman – The Imperfectionists
Mark A Radcliffe – Gabriel's Angel
Piers Paul Read – The Misognyist
Dan Rhodes – Little Hands Clapping
James Robertson – And the Land Lay Still
Ray Robinson – Forgetting Zoë
Gord Rollo – Strange Magic
Lee Rourke – The Canal
Max Schaefer – Children of the Sun
Caroline Smailes – Like Bees To Honey
Red Plenty - Francis Spufford
Oliver Stark – American Devil
DJ Taylor – At the Chime of a City Clock
Peter Temple – Truth
Mike Thomas – Pocket Notebook
Our Tragic Universe – Scarlett Thomas
David Weber – Mission Of Honor
Gerard Woodwood – Nourishment
Chris Womersley – Bereft
Jacqueline Yallop – Kissing Alice
Matthew Yorke – Pictures Of Lily
That's getting on for 100 books. What do you make of them?
