Booker Prize 2005

The 2005 Man Booker prize announced it's longlist earlier in the week - a 17 strong list, including some of the best authors around today. I can't pretend to have heard of half of them, but perrenial favourites Kazuo Ishiguro and Salmon Rushdie are both there with new books, as are Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith and J. M. Coetzee, who can all bash out a good yarn. On previous forrays into Waterstones a sticker indicating a Booker shortlist place is a fair indication of quality, as recent winners, Life of Pi, Vernon God Little and last year's victor, Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty (above) can prove. My book reading has taken a knock in this technological age, what with MP3 players and Xboxs in the ascendance, so I shall be looking in with interest when the shortlist is announced in September, with a view to cramming a bit of literary culture in before the winner is revealed in October. Having said that, I do fancy a few biographies for my bedside table - and having said that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas might get in the way of both. What are we coming to!? To view the full list of contenders click the title above and follow the links there. Kx