Getting to Know You

[Paul]

Yes welcome. Although to join my club one more needs to despise long novels than love novellas :-)

[David]

Welcome, Nathan.

[Maryana]

Hello, everyone! My name is Maryana. I was born in Ukraine, but since my childhood days I have been living elsewhere - currently living in Sapporo, Japan. I work as an architectural designer and my interests include film photography, travel and books, of course.

I prefer writing over plot, but sometimes I enjoy a well written story. I’m also interested in psychology, mental health, essays on feminism and gender. Although usually I don’t follow literary prizes, I believe they can be a great way to discover new voices.

Many thanks to David, who invited me to this group. It’s exciting that there are so many interesting discussions going on here!

[Emmeline]

Welcome Maryana! I expect you know a few of us already. :-)

[Adina]

Welcome Maryana, and, as Emily says, you probably already know a few of us.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Welcome Maryana

[David]

Welcome Maryana. A lot of us here get different things from following prizes. Some like to read the long- or shortlists, others just like to follow along. Since joining this group, I've seen how prizes are an important part of the literary landscape, highlighting important writers and books, and sometimes offering a corrective to a market-based model of publishing that doesn't always reward the best or most innovative works.

[WndyJW]

Welcome Mariana!

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Just thought I'd reactivate this topic as we must have had lots of new members since May 2023

[Carl]

Hello, everyone! I recently joined this group and have only started browsing (it is a bit daunting, the amount of posts, but I will get the hang of it soon). I am an introspective Brazilian in the UK, attempting to launch a career as a life scientist.

I haven't followed book awards and only started reading English fiction a couple of years ago (academia consumed all my free time). I am aiming to slowly change this.

I am looking forward to engaging in this year's book prize discussions.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Welcome.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Welcome Carl

[Paul]

Great to have you with us

[Henk]

Carl wrote: "Hello, everyone! I recently joined this group and have only started browsing (it is a bit daunting, the amount of posts, but I will get the hang of it soon). I am an introspective Brazilian in the ..."

Welcome, you join in an interesting period with lots of prize lists coming out!

[Carl]

Thank you, all! Indeed, there are many interesting titles this year all at once .

[CJ]

Hello, I joined a few days ago. Just found this thread. I appreciate all the welcomes I got in the other thread I posted in here!

I'm CJ and I live in the US. I've been an avid reader all my life, starting as a very enthusiastic kid who wanted to read HG Wells and Ray Bradbury over "kid stuff." My reading habits have shifted a lot over the years, especially during grad school and my 12 years of mostly autodidactic language study. I have long loved SF, but enjoy other genre fiction as well as classics and lit fic. Grad school left me rather burnt out of stuff like philosophy and theology, but I still read some selected non-fiction.

I had to retire early as a teacher because of cancer, which has given me time to get caught up on reading. Entering middle age and dealing with IRL life stuff had made it hard for me to read as much as I would have liked, so I'm making up for it now, as much as my health and living situation will allow.

I've been following the Booker prize in particular for several years now, even though I've rarely had the time to read many of the titles nominated. In another GR group here--Catching up on Classics--I'm doing a personal challenge for the second half of 2025 to read selected past winners and nominees.

A quick question: how does this group feel about necro-posting? Since I'm reading older Booker nominees at the moment, I was wondering if I had any thoughts about them, if it would OK for me to post in the older threads.

[Carl]

CJ wrote: "Hello, I joined a few days ago. Just found this thread. I appreciate all the welcomes I got in the other thread I posted in here!

I'm CJ and I live in the US. I've been an avid reader all my life,..."

Bless you, CJ! I'm a cancer survivor. It changes all, but there's light. I hope you're doing well, and if you ever want/need, we can talk about it. May I ask what you used to teach? I taught biology disciplines at some point. Exhausting and weirdly rewarding.

Regarding necro-posting (first time I hear the term and it's quite clever), I think it's ok.

[Paul]

Welcome to the group

And yes necro-posting is completely fine indeed helpful - insights and views into past prize books are still very valuable.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Welcome CJ. Paul is right, contributions to old discussions are fine. You may need to go a few pages down to find them, but we have discussions for every longlisted book since 2016, and have revisited some older years from time to time too.

There are also rankings topics for all winners, and for all longlisted and shortlisted books, though I haven't checked for league table updates in those for quite a long time.

[Beige]

@CJ - I'm glad you asked about necroposting. I didn't realize there were so many old threads to browse, sweet!

I also didn't notice this thread so I'll introduce myself too....so hello everyone. My name is Jo and I live in Canada. I read genre (sff) and lit fic. Many years ago I was a bookseller and hope to do that again when I retire. After a number years of lurking in the "Newest Literary Fiction" Group, I decided to come by and lurk in this one too. However, now I know you have so many old threads I'll likely be more active because I've been reading some of the past nominees of the International Booker and Goldsmiths prizes.

Some of my favourites of past award nominees are Seven Steeples, Outline, Lote, Intimacies, White Tears and Assembly

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Welcome Jo

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Beige wrote: "
I also didn't notice this thread..."

This is something of a drawback of having all of our prize folders listed above the general ones - perhaps we should think about changing that.

[Beige]

Hugh wrote: "This is something of a drawback of having all of our prize folders listed above the general ones - perhaps we should think about changing that."

You could consider making your first thread an intro of sorts? I've seen variations of that in other groups. With so many years of awards a roadmap of sorts with links to folders by award/year would be great to see. And of course, a link to this welcome thread :D

[Paul]

Welcome Beige. And delighted to see a fellow Lote fan!

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Beige wrote: "Hugh wrote: "This is something of a drawback of having all of our prize folders listed above the general ones - perhaps we should think about changing that."

You could consider making your first t..."


OK, as an experiment, I'll move this folder to second place in the list - I think the Booker needs to remain our primary focus at this stage so that will stay top.

I might also consider creating an index to the more interesting discussions, but that could be quite a long job.

[Beige]

Thank you for the welcomes and @Hugh for considering my suggestions.