Bookermania

Now that the Booker Prize shortlist is out, one of my year’s rituals can begin. Unfortunately, only one of the books I already own, Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, made it onto the list. Fortunately, only one of the books on the list, Hisham Mater’s In the Country of Men, hasn’t yet been published in the United States. I have 25 days left before the prizewinner is announced; the five shortlisted books I don’t already own should be in Gambier in about a week. How many can I read? And, perhaps more to the point, in what corners of these crowded days will I find time even to try to read six novels? I face these questions every year. This year, if things go at all well, I’ll offer updates on my progress. Perhaps I’ll even manage a prediction or two about who’ll be named the winner, come October 10.