This is a small experiment to see if it is possible, using only the public libraries I belong to, to read the six books short-listed for the 2010 Man Booker prize before the winner is announced. On 7 September, when the shortlist came out, I reserved them all.
About thirty minutes ago I finished Andrea Levy's The Long Song . I enjoyed it, though I'm not sure it should win. July, a slave in Jamaica until emancipation, tells her harrowing story in retrospect. It's well done, but I fear I found it conventional.
I also have Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America to start, and Seaford library e-mailed me to say that Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question is available.
As for the others, I reserved Tom McCarthy's C with East Sussex, and am third on a waiting list of three. I reserved Emma Donoghue's Room with both East Sussex and Brighton and Hove, and am 13th out of 18 and 58th out of 97 requesters respectively. As for Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room, I am 3rd of 18 with Brighton and Hove.
The prize is awarded on 12 October so I have five books to read in eighteen days. I could do that easily; when preparing for Oxford entrance exams I had to read what felt like the whole corpus of English literature in a term. But I don't feel very confident about the ability of these libraries to provide copies in time.
Have libraries increased the numbers of copies in stock since I last checked on 9 September? Yes, but many are still on order, which suggests that library suppliers may be as much at fault as libraries.| Author | Brighton & Hove | East Sussex |
| Carey | 5 more copies ordered, but only 3 of 13 copies actually circulating | 21 copies in stock, no increase, but only 10 in circulation |
| Donoghue | Another 6 copies ordered, of 15 copies only 4 circulating | 1 copy to satisfy 19 reservations; 7 more on order |
| Galgut | 2 copies in stock, an extra 5 on order | 8 copies (curiously the first display in the catalogue claims 9, but next screen shows only 8) |
| Jacobson | Another 8 copies ordered, but only 2 out of 13 actually circulating | Another 8 copies in the system, all 13 circulating |
| Levy | Have ordered another 5 copies, 8 copies not in circulation | No change, 24 copies, but 10 of these held in store |
| McCarthy | Another 5 copies ordered, but only 2 of 13 circulatingk | 1 copy on order (still!) |
I see there's also an iPhone app, and as it's free I'll download it, but I'm disappointed to see that while it will link to bookshops, it won't to libraries. And why is it age-restricted?