There was a brief moment, when the Booker longlist came out, that I thought what it would be like to read them all. It would be a good challenge. Even more challenging considering ONE OF THEM ISN’T EVEN OUT YET (this drum will continue to be banged). Then I realised it was pure mentalism. A reason which would not necessarily stop anyone around here. Then, then I realised it was the wrong kind of pure mentalism: ie the type of pure mentalism they would do on the BBC.
So a number of people are doing this for the BBC4 show Bookered Out. And one is writing an diary of it on BBC Online. Pshaw, I said, they are probably trying to make some rubbish point or other (they did approach an FT writer to do this last year, on the basis as someone who liked football he did not like books). But this chap is an English teacher and nicely scabrous about the first one he read. And then I came across this bit in his biography:
Ever been in the situation when someone asks you “So, what’s the last book you read?” and you have had to lie through your teeth in order to avoid the humiliation and intellectual defrocking that the truth would elicit?
In the last two months I have read Doctor Who novels, Manga comics, a “post-modern” horror novel, a book called Giantslayer about a dwarf who slays giants, a Spider-Man comic featuring The Sinister Six…I won’t go on.
Looks like he’ll always be welcome around here anyway.