A new house, how exciting. I used to love moving into a new place for the fun of making it over to my taste. I used to be able to plaster, paint and put up wall paper back in those days! Are you still collecting Booker books? You must have hundreds by now?

After reading the book descriptions in the "Cheat's Guide," I have to say they seem rather heavy and full of angst. I suppose "light-hearted" and "heart-warming" are not qualities the Booker folks look for or admire.

I read the "Cheat's Guide" also and found the descriptions very dark. One really stood out for me; I may wish to find and read "The Wall."

Congratulations on your new house!

Martin, weren't you moving last year when the Booker list came out? :)

Thanks for keeping us posted on it.

Donna

Can't wait for you to start reading and reporting. Congratulations on the new house. It sounds like a dream house for your family.

Do report back Martin. Hope you haven't put your shirt on a winner!

The Booker choices although never 'main stream' seem to get darker, more sinister, filled with unlikable characters and difficult to read and this year trans-gender seems to be the go-to word.

I never understand the point of nominating books that have yet to be published.

Indeed, last year we were looking for our house and trying to sell our own. We put in an offer on our new house in August last year, finally managed to sell our house in London in January, moved into rented accommodation, and finally completed on our new house in June this year. Rapid refurbishment, and we have a moving date of September 25th for our move from rented accommodation into the new house!

It's been a long year, but the end is in sight.

Vee - I agree with you actually, but the Booker is open to books published between October one year and September the next (or something like that). So they have to read and (sometimes) nominate books which are yet to be published. What often happens is that the publication date is brought forward if the book is longlisted. Won't happen with the Atwood though - they know that is going to sell in huge numbers whether or not it's nominated.

Martin will you still be in the Harrow area either top or bottom of the hill?!

I always feel sorry for Ms Atwood who always seems to turn up to the Booker dinner and speechifying only to NOT win.

I have heard on the BBC some of the members of the judging panel from previous years discuss why/how they chose the 'favourite' book and it seems to be based on some sort of 'theme' they must think up ie young/English as a second language/person 'of colour'/gender issues/about time this old person got a prize . . ..

Nope - we're shot of Harrow now! We've moved to York.

We have a daughter and grandchild in Newcastle and another daughter and grandchildren in Manchester, so it's a good mid-point. We can get to either and back in a day, rather than the weekend trip that was previously required. Much nicer.

I wouldn't feel too sorry for Margaret Atwood - she actually won the Booker in 2000 with The Blind Assassin. The person I felt most sorry for was Beryl Bainbridge who was shortlisted five times between 1973 and 1998 and didn't win. And also Anita Desai who has been shortlisted three times without winning, only to see her daughter Kiran Desai win the flippin' thing on her first (and so far, only) shortlisting in 2006.

I agree also that sometimes the judges come up with some strange rationales for their selections. But they are only human....

York! A lovely civilized city. We have a neighbour who has moved to Heworth and now regards that part of the world as the centre of the universe.

I hope you don't hear too many soft southerner comments or the merits of Yorkshire cricket . . . or Yorkshire anything . . . over the rest of the country.

Annpan - yes, I'm still collecting. I've got all the winners and shortlists as first editions (and I keep that up to date every year). I've also got a lot of the longlist, but whether I can be bothered to get all those...

Not including this year, I have 50 winners, 242 shortlist making a grand total of 292. I've also got at least thirty or forty long-lists and duplicates.

Vee - yes, we love York. It is generally pretty civilized, except in the evenings at weekends, when the stag and hen parties from Newcastle turn up. (Apparently the young folk from York go to Newcastle for their stag and hen parties.) It can also be a bit drunken in the evening when the races are on. And in the summer, the tourists can be a bit overbearing.

Nevertheless, we love it. It's great to be a local, and not a tourist. For example, we can by-pass the queue at the Minster, show our driving licenses and get in for free. Means I can stroll in for a half-hour just for a bit of calm, or to listen to the choir rehearsing. I've done that a couple of times when my wife is trawling the shops.

Oh, and the second-hand bookshops in York are amazing.

And if anyone does think we're effete Southerners, they've been kind enough not to say so!

Martin, your house looks wonderful! I can see why you're excited.

Looks like there is plenty of room for all those books.

I was amazed at having to pay to get into the York Minster.

I noticed that there was a fee when I took my daughter to Westminster Abbey when she came to the UK to visit from Australia. We only had one day to spend in London, so we didn't want to queue and I was quite upset at the thought of having to pay to go into a church.

And roses round the door . . what more could you ask?

Annpan, paying/donating to visit cathedrals/touristy churches has become more usual over here, although I suppose you could always say you had just come in to pray or light a candle.

These buildings are always in need of funds for the upkeep of the fabric and the clergy obviously felt it was a good way to cover some of their huge expenses.

This Summer Norwich Cathedral has installed a helter-skelter in the Nave and Rochester has added a crazy-golf course . . . make of that what you will.

In my old home town of Stratford (on Avon) thousands of tourists flock to see Shakespeare's grave and I remember back in the '50's, one of the verger's saying that a group of tourists had come in, sat down in a pew and started eating their picnic! They were 'asked to leave'. These days apparently they don't even like to suggest that men remove their hats in case they receive a mouthful of abuse . . .

Norwich Cathedral

To be fair, the reason for the helter skelter at Norwich is so that you can get a closer view of the ceiling, which is apparently worth seeing.

Vee - yes, roses round the door! Several people have said that it's like a child's drawing of a house; we feel it's a bit like a doll's house, and you feel you could almost open up the front of it. The front part was built in about 1904, and around 1930 it was extended significantly at the back.

Anyway - back to the Booker!

The Wall - John Lanchester.

This is, I guess, a dystopian novel based in the UK in a time not too far in the future. The Change has occurred, and there is a Wall round the UK; it's told in first person by a Defender who is about to do his two-year spell on the Wall. It's really a slow-moving thriller, which I thoroughly enjoyed; but it did rather hammer home its messages.

I'm surprised it was long-listed, though I'm glad I've read it. I don't think it'll be short-listed.

What a beautiful house, Martin! Thanks for posting the photo. Like Ann, I cannot imagine having to pay to go inside a church. And we do have some in the US that are 3 centuries old and crumbling.

When we were in the UK some years ago, we were astonished to be charged to visit the Lynton and Lynmouth villages! The woman on the toll said hastily that the fee included parking! I don't know if that is still the case.

My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite

I have to admit I enjoyed this. It is a bizarre Idea - it's a first person account of a nurse who has a sister who has a habit of killing her boyfriends, and how she deals with it. It's blackly comic, but has some thought-provoking points - like how far do you go to protect a member of your family?

I would, nevertheless, be surprised if it was shortlisted. But it's a fun read, in a strange sort of way, and I'd recommend it.

Two out of two! Good start. Now on to Frankissstein, by Jeannette Winterson.

And btw - thanks for your nice comments about our new house. :)

Martin, your house does indeed look lovely! I still remember catching up with you when you were in Adelaide :)

Hi Astrokath - yes, I have good memories of that day. By heck, it was hot, though!

Am I allowed to mention the cricket today? :)

Frankissstein - Jeanette Winterson

Well, this must be a shoo-in for the shortlist. Absolutely marvellous book. I'm tempted to just go back and start reading it again - but I can do that if it is shortlisted, can't I.

It's two stories in one - one is, in the first person, by Mary Shelley, talking about her life before, during, and after the writing of Frankenstein. The second is set in the present day (or perhaps a few years hence), and is about a young trans person called Ry Shelley (Ry short for Mary originally, but he now presents as male) and his relationship with a man called Victor Stein who is an expert on AI, and is interested in the possibilities of creating life with artificial intelligence. I won't say any more - but I thought it was excellent, and will definitely reward re-reading.

Not sure what I'm going to read next. I think the answer might be the one I can buy cheapest as a Kindle book :)

Yes please, by all means mention the cricket . . . even to Kath. She is a good sport!

I didn't stay up to watch it but wow! Sounds like a brilliant game.

Yes. I'm not much of a cricket fan, but I keep an eye on the test matches. After England's magnificent first innings score of 67 (!), like everyone else, I'd assumed an Australia win.

Yesterday lunchtime, we had to get about 200 with 6 wickets standing, and I allowed myself a little hope. Had to go out for a couple of hours, and when I returned England needed 73 with one wicket. Oh well, I thought. So I turned on the TV, expecting to watch for perhaps half an hour and see the last wicket fall - and watched in amazement as Stokes single-handedly got the score closer and closer to the target...

Quite something. Like I said to a friend of mine, I think I watched a bit of history yesterday!

One nice little irony - Test cricket is not on terrestrial TV over here, it's on Sky, which means you have to pay to get it. But the day before, I'd found a voucher which gave me a week's Sky Sports for a bargain price, which I bought so that I could watch Arsenal play Liverpool at Anfield. If I hadn't wanted to watch the football, I wouldn't have been able to watch the cricket.

If only Arsenal had won as well....

I remember, as child, the boredom when TV showed nothing but cricket Test matches, when even kid's programmes were cancelled.

I found myself listening on BBC radio while I do the ironing as we only get Long Wave which does all the cricket matches (no FM signal here). I don't know where any of the fielding positions are, so Silly Mid-Off and Cover Point mean nothing to me, but it produces a soothing mood while doing a dull task.

We don't subscribe to Sky TV.

Martin, your house is lovely. I have been to York twice and thoroughly enjoyed both visits. The first was just after 9/11, and the cathedral had a side chapel set up for prayers.

Say hello to Betty's Tea Shop for me.

Lanny, by Max Porter

Can't get into this. It's set in some village, Lanny is some very bright and artistic child, there are also his parents and an artist teaching him, and some sort of strange spirit in the village which seems to take over bodies or listen to thoughts....I can't, frankly, get interested. But if it's short-listed, I'll give it another go.

So, today the Rushdie and the Levy were published. Starting the Levy first - the premise intrigues me.

Well, I'm really enjoying The Man who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy. Haven't quite finished it, but I was hoping it would be shortlisted so that I'd have an excuse to re-read it.

But the short-list is now out...