The Man Booker Prize has become an institution. This years winner, Hilary Mantel, has seen her (brilliant) Wolf Hall jump into the stratosphere sales-wise when compared to her back catalogue. Wolf Hall is as good as all her other books, which won critical acclaim, but they didn't put a sports car on the drive*. The big difference is of course winning.
Early in the history of the Booker Prize, the rules changed. In 1971, eligibility changed to depend on publication that year, and the prize moved to the end of the year to accommodate the rule change. That orphaned a bunch of books published in 1970 that could never have been considered due to these changes.
The Lost Man Booker Prize is a brilliant idea to fix this. The long list was great, the shortlist contains six out of six books that I now really want to read.
Guess what - none of them are available in eBook format! I can feel the total lack of shock rippling around the forum, but the volume of missing back catalogue is shocking. There are some fantastic books that we desperately need to become available again. I know I am preaching to the converted, but as Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones et al gear up to bombarding us with competing versions of the latest blockbusters, I find it distressing.
For anyone that still reads pBooks, The Lost Man Booker Prize link is here:
http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1412
You can even vote for the winner!
amjb
* I have no idea whether Hilary Mantel covets a sports car, had one already, intends to purchase one, or can even drive. She's done very well with Wolf Hall though, and hopefully she's spent some of the well deserved loot on something fun
