7 August 2025

My Booker Prize Longlist Wager

The longlist for the Booker Prize was announced last month. In the past few years, I have tried to read whatever I can of the shortlist before the prize is announced. But this year, given how unfamiliar the longlist seems, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at a couple of books before the shortlist is announced 23 September. Part of my thinking is that this will at least give me an interest in what gets in and what is left out of the final six books. Also, the idea that I might pick the eventual winner this far out inspires, I imagine, a similar interest of anticipation experienced by punters on a horse race (I have never placed real bets on anything).

To that end I went to the Booker Prizes website the other night and read through all the information about each book. I had the idea of travelling to Sydney to buy my selected book the next day. I narrowed the selection down to Universality by Natasha Brown and Endling by Maria Reva. But when I checked the websites of the three major bookstores in Sydney, I discovered that both books were out of stock, and that other books in the list were mostly out of stock or still to be published. The rules of the Booker Prize require that the winning book be published by 30 September this year.

But I’d already promised Jenny I would go to Sydney with her, so we went, regardless. After a spot of geocaching – Jenny still does it – we went to Abbeys Bookstore, where I proceeded to scan the shelves for each book from the list. It was good I did this, because I found one copy of Universality on the shelf, despite the website saying it was out of stock. Abbeys also had David Szalay’s Flesh (which was the only book from the list that Harry Hartog in Penrith had had) and Katie Kitamura’s Audition. I decided to buy Flesh as well – it sounds interesting enough – but left Audition behind (because books are expensive).

For those who like maths, Google tells me that my purchase gives me roughly a 30% chance of both books appearing in the shortlist, while my odds increase to around 42% for only one of either book to make it. I really don’t care enough for maths to have checked this result. Blame Google if you think it’s wrong. But I think that I am right in saying I have a 15% chance of having bought the winner yesterday.

- bikerbuddy

1 August 2025

Welcome to a new reviewer!

Krystelle
‘Neptunes Bounty’

I wrote last month that I had a rather long break from reading and working on the website because we moved our office into our son’s old bedroom and soundproofed it to escape noise from a construction next door. For a while it felt like there wouldn’t be much done on the website. But I got back to it and things began to come together again.

A most welcome development came in the last few days with an email from Krystelle, who offered to write a review for Stephen King’s Carrie. In fact, Krystelle was offering to write a series of reviews for Stephen King’s novels in the order they were published. Krystelle is a prolific reader and she has written many reviews for Goodreads and has what I consider to be a pretty healthy following on that platform. Naturally, we were pretty excited to receive this offer. Krystelle is, in fact, a work colleague of Toriaz, one of the founding reviewers for this site, and they have often discussed books and reading at work. Krystelle has also been subscribing to our monthly newsletter since November last year.

Krystelle will be known by the reviewer name ‘NeptunesBounty’ on this website. In one of her emails, she said she would explain why she chose that name, then seems to have forgotten to. No doubt she will enlighten me another time. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to her first review which I should receive sometime this coming weekend. I will post it on Monday. Thanks to Krystelle for her generous offer to contribute, and welcome!

- bikerbuddy