What better way to spend a Saturday than in a sea of grey hair at Readers’ Day. This was my second appearance at what is my favourite day in the literary calendar. This year it was held at County Hall, West Bridgeford, which although not as opulent as the Council House (where it was hosted last year) had an equal amount of male portraits mounted along the staircase. But they soon became the minority when the building flooded with females. Judging by this, men must be allergic to books.
My talk was ‘Why bother with the Booker?’ and was co-presented with Sheelagh Gallagher. We had initially planned to put forward arguments for and against but in the end decided to see how things turned out on the day. But I didn’t leave things purely to chance and came armed with numerous facts and quotes to test out the audience and interject where appropriate. Did they know the shortlisted books are specially bound to reflect the themes of the book? That sales of novels are up 127% year-on-year, that 13,000 copies were distributed to students beginning university this term, that Year 13 pupils were able to down their iPods and read the entire shortlist as part of an academic assignment? And talking of technology, you can now download a Booker App with a whole arsenal of bookish delights. Take that, ladies.
The talk couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time what with the various scandals surrounding this year’s prize. We have the conspiracists claiming the only reason a western and a thriller got in was to ensure Julian Barnes made it fourth time lucky with the ‘posh bingo.’ The purists have been so outraged at the ‘readability’ of the shortlist – which seems an oxymoron given that the basic test of any book is inspiring the reader to turn the next page – that they’re (headed by literary agent Andrew Kidd) setting up The Literature Prize to bring back ‘quality and ambition’. And all, I imagine, because Tom McCarthy didn’t take the honours last year with C and this year they dared to leave off Alan Hollinghurst. Barnes must be wondering what he’s done wrong. Perhaps Rupert Murdoch can recoup the losses from the NOTW scandal and buy the rights to film literature’s very own Champions League.
Then of course there is the Not the Booker, for the literary subcultures that think they know better. But even this has not passed without scandal. The Dead Beat by Cody James was withdrawn by her publisher because of clique attacks on the Guardian hosted forums. He said, ‘I misjudged the mood of these forums, their willingness to meet dialogue with dialogue, to accept differences, and most of all to talk about the book rather than sniping at the author or readers. As a result I have exposed her to comments that no author deserves to have levelled at them.’
This is why I love the Booker: The endless conversations it creates, the tantrums and offence. I can’t get enough, so this year – as far as dialogue is concerned – it’s been my favourite to date. It saw two debut novelists as well in Stephen Kelman and A D Miller. My top three books this year are The Silent Land (which is being made into a film and is just as beautiful a story of grief and reflection as A Sense of an Ending – but the wrong genre) Too Much Happiness (winner of the International Booker 2009) and The Tiger’s Wife (winner of the Orange Prize 2011) – so these prizes must be doing something right. But at the end of the day, the best books come from people you trust. This can be dangerous in that you can potentially limit your horizons by staying with the familiar, but it’s never failed me. So choose those friends wisely. I found a new friend that day in Carol Hodgkinson who recommended the following: The Book Club Bible: The Definitive Guide That Every Books Club Member Needs, 2007, Michael O’Mara Books Ltd.
Robin Lewis reviews Readers’ Day in LeftLion.