Book prizes: serious business or too much hype?

Book prizes: serious business or too much hype? 08/12/2009

On the heels of the Man Booker Prize longlist being released, The Guardian came up with their own award: The Not Booker Prize. On some forums the chatter surrounding book prizes, especially Booker's, is that many of the shortlisted books, and the subsequent winner, may not be consistent with what most readers have raved about each year.

There are some who choose to follow the suggestive nature of book prizes like they are the omniscient authority on books. There are others, like myself, who take most book prizes with a grain of salt. In my case, the most well known prizes barely reflect my taste in literature enough for me to invest more than a few glances at the nominees and winners.

So, I ask my fellow bibliophiles: How much stock do you put into book prizes?

Comments

Karoline

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 1:19:54 pm

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:22:53
Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Some I've read and I'm think: THIS won the award? WTF?

the reliable ones I tend to listen to are children's awards. I've read some of those and they've been excellent. It's the adult ones I'm weary of.

BrownGirl

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 1:20:25 pm

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:27:59
That's funny Karoline and so true. It's always some book that no one has read yet, but then it's a mad scramble, for some, to get it just b/c of the award. I'm on a different drumbeat too.

Jenna

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 1:21:44 pm

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:40:48
Hi, I followed you over here from book blogs.

I probably put more stock into them then I necessarily should. But there is just something about a list that I feel like I need to accomplish, lol! If a book on a list doesn't sound interesting to me I won't read it. But if it does, then there's a good chance I'll want to read it.

I'm going to follow your blog... it looks good!

Jenna

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 1:22:49 pm

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:45:36
I have an award for you <a href="http://takemeaway-jennala9.blogspot.com/"> here </a>

J.T. Oldfield

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 1:48:25 pm

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:48:00
So far my favorite way to talk to other Book Bloggers has been Twitter. When other bloggers post reviews, I usually click on them. That's great because I follow more bloggers on Twitter than with my Google Reader!

Karoline

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 1:48:51 pm

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:01:06
It's entirely up to you. I have accounts in ning groups, shelfari, goodreads, and librarything. I post my reviews on all of them. I think it somewhat maximizes exposure of the book. That's just my opinion though :)

Charley

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 1:49:44 pm

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:04:56
I'm a writer rather than a reviewer, but I do belong to several writing and/or reading groups. I see very little overlap between the groups, but I think that's good because of the fresh viewpoints on each site or blog.

Charley

Nishita

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 1:50:31 pm

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:51:57
I am a member of Shelfari and LibraryThing. However, I am afraid I am not that active on them.

I just post book reviews on my blog, and just add my favorite books to my shelf on Shelfari/LibraryThing. I then tweet about my review so folks following me get a look. I have recently become active on Book Blogs and I am enjoying the experience here so far.

I find it is just too much overhead for me to post things to so many different places.

Would be nice to have a tool that allows you to publish your review to multiple forums.

Terry Doherty

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 1:51:14 pm

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 06:26:57
I have an account with LibraryThing that I haven't used since I discovered GoodReads. I just recently added a Shelfari account.

I don't have the patience nor time to add reviews to both accounts, and since I've been on Goodreads for more than 2 years, I'll continue to post there. That said, I've got all my books on Shelfari and I will keep it up to date with current reads. If you're thinking about widgets for your sidebar. I like Shelfari's MUCH better. That was a driving factor for adding the account. Since joining, I've been very impressed with their assistance and its timeliness. I asked them about importing reviews from GoodReads (since you can import your list of books) and they are looking at the idea.

I don't envision duplicating contacts or groups in Shelfari. I'm active in several groups on Goodreads and started a group on Shelfari that is distinct from my other stuff.

Cross-platform is helpful and it introduces me to folks who aren't *everywhere* so as long as I can keep the processes simple and the goals distinct, it is manageable to do both.

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