I'm a sad individual. Reading the long list for the Booker Prize, I realize I've only heard of two of them and read none.

I know none of the books, and have only heard of a couple of the authors. Bah.

I think a Brit will come along any minute now and point out that the Booker is named after some guy in Britain who had money (supermarkets?), so although it has a hoity-toity reputation, it is not The Prize Of All Books. Also, it is for British (& Commonwealth?) works, so I wouldn't be surprised if 50% of that list is not in print in the US (yet if ever).

Yup.

Now in its thirty-fifth year, the prize aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.

I'm so tired I can't follow plot. My usual standby, really trashy novels, isn't working; I get halfway in and skim to the end.

When I'm like this I re-read books I've already read at least twice, because I can pick them up at any point in the story, and it's no biggie if I don't finish them this go-round.

I'm so tired I can't follow plot. My usual standby, really trashy novels, isn't working; I get halfway in and skim to the end.

Sometimes I'll reread poetry at this point. Especially sonnet collections -- short yet filling.

Huh. Two opposing views of the latest LKH (Incubus Dreams) arrived in my inbox today from friends. One says:

It's a big book. Lots of words. Lots of sex. Not much plot. ... Except for a very sweet and sexy scene with

, most of these sexual situations in the book are weirdly unerotic to read. Even the big

(that many of us have been looking forward to!) is a dud.

The other:

I did like the

scene. I would agree with her though that it wasn't erotic, but in fact was somewhat edgy and awkward because the characters were experiencing it as edgy and awkward. I thought that was the point, but I can see how it wouldn't work for people.

By a conservative estimate probably half the book is sex scenes or leads up to sex scenes. I regard that as a feature, not a bug, but in spite of all the sex (and you may be gathering that there is a lot of sex, with a number of men) it isn't erotica, it's something else. I'm not sure I have a name for it, but the discomfort seems to me to be part of the intended effect.

[whitefonted for the very spoiler-sensitive, though most of it is about character as opposed to plot points]

Well, I'm sure

Jean Claude

was happy with the developments, the big ho.

Oh, the bastards. Patrick O'Brian died with his 21st novel unfinished.

His publisher are making three chapters of the same available if you buy the anthology of the complete works.

Which any obsessive O'Brian fan would already have owned as individual books.

Never mind, you can buy the last book separately.

Well, since I'm a newly obsessive fan who's been getting the books from the library, I put the anthology atop my Christmas wish list.

But I'm glad it's not the only way to get the unfinished book.