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Who would want to be a Man Booker prize judge? I'm taking part in panel event at Queen's University later this month -- a discussion/debate about the shortlisted novels -- and I'm reading my way through all six shortlisted titles in preparation. Well, four of them -- I've already read Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach and Anne Enright's The Gathering -- so it's hardly a mountain-climb. But finding time to read a prescribed list of books alongside all the other things I'm doing (and the other books I'm reading for various programmes I present) can be difficult. Imagine working through box-loads of books for months, compiling lists, comparing and contrasting sometimes extremely different types of novels, and then meeting to argue about which is the "best" novel (whatever that means). I suspect that many Man Booker judges need a sabbatical from reading (and treatment for eyestrain) after the winner is announced.

I'm trying to keep an open mind, but I tend to love everything Ian McEwan writes, and The Gathering, by Anne Enright, was one of my favourite new novels from my last series of The Book Programme. , the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Writer in Residence at Queen's, is organising the panel event and has asked me to introduce Indra Sinha's novel Animal's People to the intellectually chesiled gathering on October 15th. I'll post some notes about that as I go. In the meantime, feel free to post your reviews of the six shortlisted titles here.

If you can't bring yourself to read six books before the prizewinner is announced, try this -- The Guardian's