This week’s prompt: September is a busy month for literary events and book awards. Are there any award-winning books or authors you’re eager to read, or any forthcoming book events you intend to go to or cover on your blog?
My relationship with book prizes has been on and off. I find that my interest very much depends on the books that are selected in a given year, and how much they appeal to me. Prizes I have followed in the past are The Women’s Prize for Fiction (there was one year I read and enjoyed every shortlisted selection), The Booker Prize (I’ve never read a whole list, but I have read a selection and have found some great books there), Canada Reads (I love the format, but again, it depends on the celebrities and books that are being featured – some have been absolutely brilliant, others just okay) and, of course, The BookTube Prize which I have judged several times in the past (I missed the sign up this year, much to my disappointment – damn ADHD and the whole forgetting dates and things I need to do thing!) and am a huge fan of. Of all of these, I’d have to say that The BookTube Prize is closest to my heart. Not only because of my participation, but because of what it is. I love that it was created by the online book community for the same community, and was designed to feature books that regular readers like me are most interested in or that they enjoyed the most in the past year. I’ve read a huge number of books I’d never have read otherwise thanks to judging the prize, and I’ve been blown away by some of those very same books. Here are some of the books I was so grateful to have discovered:
The Trees by Percival Everett
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Still Life by Sarah Winman
All of these books I either hadn’t considered reading or had been aware of and decided weren’t for me. And yet, each and every one had me completely drawn in, gave me a huge amount to think about and surprised me in delightful ways. So I guess at the end of the day, I think that book prizes are not infallible – they are dependent on which books are submitted, which are selected by which judges in a particular year. All of these factors rule out a vast number of fantastic books each year, but it also provides an interesting and constantly changing selectin of books that are often ones I never would have discovered without the prizes bringing them to my attention. So while I’m not going to think that the books that win prizes are necessarily the “best” books of a particular year (especially as this is so subjective), I do think that they’re a great tool for shining a light on a specific selection of novels. And for that, I will always pay attention to them.
What about you guys? Do any of you follow any book prizes? Are there any other prizes I didn’t mention that you look forward to each year? Are there any books you love that you discovered thanks to a prize list?
The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly blog link-up that gives participants a different book-related question to ponder each week, and allows them to share their thoughts, find new blogs to follow and connect with new readers. The Hop was originally created by Jennifer at Crazy for Books and is now hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. To see a list of upcoming prompts go here.