The Complete Booker

• The challenge runs from January 1 - December 31, 2011.
• There are several levels of participation:

• Overlaps with other challenges are permitted.
• Book selections don't have to be posted right away, and lists may be changed at any time.
• To participate, you must be a contributor to The Complete Booker blog.  To become a contributor, please email the moderator (an email address is required, so comments to this post won't work).  Note:  you can also be a contributor to The Complete Booker blog without taking part in the challenge.
• Publish a challenge post on The Complete Booker blog, describing your specific goals for this challenge. 
  
• Read, review, and post your reviews on The Complete Booker blog.  See the Participant Guidelines for more information.
• Feel free to cross-post if you have your own blog. 
  
• Have fun!

You may enter links to your reviews for the rest of 2010 here if you are not a contributor to the blog (or even if you are).

You may enter links to your Jan/Feb/Mar 2010 reviews here if you are not a contributor to the blog (or even if you are).

I've created a new look for The Complete Booker using the new Blogger Template Designer.  I also moved some of the sidebar content to two new pages:  one page for the 2010 Challenge, and another for the Winners List.

Update 27 March 7:00am US EDT:  background changed based on Martine's comment.

What do you think?  Any suggestions for further improvement?

You may enter links to your Jan/Feb/Mar 2010 reviews here if you are not a contributor to the blog (or even if you are).

Aren't challenges much more fun when they have a button?  I'm just terrible at creating them.  Thankfully, there are others more gifted in the art of button-making.

Caitlin at chaotic compendiums has come up with this button for The Complete Booker 2010 challenge, and I have duly adopted it for use by all challenge participants.  Feel free to use it, and resize as needed.  I recommend downloading to your own computer and/or storing your button at a site like Photobucket or Flickr.

Enjoy!

The Complete Booker originated in August, 2007 to bring together book lovers and book bloggers interested in reading winners of The Man Booker Prize for Fiction.  In 2008 we also began posting reviews of short- and long-listed nominees.  The challenge blog is now approaching 300 posts, and well over 200 of these are reviews.  If you're working towards reading the entire winners list, do you need a little motivation to continue?  Have you thought about joining, but shied away from the commitment to read such a long list of books?  There are many ways to approach the Booker Prize list, and The Complete Booker aims to please.  So in 2010, there will be additional ways to participate.

• The challenge runs from January 1 - December 31, 2010.
• There are several levels of participation:

• Overlaps with other challenges are permitted.
• Book selections don't have to be posted right away, and lists may be changed at any time.
• SIGN UP using Mr. Linky below. Please link directly to a specific post about this challenge.
• Post your reviews:

• If you'd like to be a contributor to this blog, please email the moderator (an email address is required, so comments to this post won't work).
• Mr. Linky will also be available for those who do not wish to become contributors. 
  

• Have fun!
  

The BBAW Shortlists were announced today and while The Complete Booker didn't make the Best Collaborative Blog shortlist, some really fabulous blogs are now vying for the ultimate honors across numerous categories. Vote here, anytime between now and September 12 at 11:59PM EST. And get ready to join the celebration during Book Blogger Appreciation Week, September 14-18.

I was thrilled today to learn that The Complete Booker was nominated for Best Collaborative Blog in the second annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week, which takes place September 14-18, 2009. Here's BBAW's description of the Best Collaborative Blog award:

They say great minds think alike, and this blog is proof - while the individual members may not always agree, their collective whole makes for some of the best content on the web.

I am so excited! And I'm also so grateful to the participants in The Complete Booker challenge, because this nomination is due entirely to your efforts. Just being nominated puts us in some pretty fine company. This is a real honor; congratulations to all of the nominees, in all categories!

So, you might want to keep these important BBAW dates in mind:

• September 7: Shorlists are announced and voting begins
  
• September 12: Voting closes at 11:59 PM EST
• September 14-18: BBAW! Jon the fun here!
  

2008 was the first full year for The Complete Booker, the perpetual challenge & this blog having been established in August, 2007. I would like to take a moment to thank all of you for sharing your thoughts on both Booker winners and the books that made the long- or short-list each year. I love seeing what others have thought about a book I've read, or am about to read.

Trevor was the most prolific reviewer this year, with 30 posts since joining in April. Wow! Thanks, Trevor, for writing such thoughtful reviews and being so instrumental in making this blog a valuable resource for anyone interested in the Booker Prize.

The most-reviewed prize-winning book was 2007 winner The Gathering, by Anne Enright, with 12 reviews. The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood, was a distant second with 6 reviews. Several books received 5 reviews, including: Midnight's Children (1981), The Life and times of Michael K (1983), Oscar and Lucinda (1988), Possession (1990), Disgrace (1999), The Inheritance of Loss (2006), and The White Tiger (2008). Click on the label found in the sidebar for reviews of each title.

I hope everyone enjoyed participating this year, and that you will return in 2009 with still more reviews. Happy New Year!

Do you follow this blog either by visiting the site directly, or via an RSS feed ? I'd love to know about it! Our friends at Blogger have recently rollout out a "Followers" feature, which you can now find on this blog's sidebar. Following this blog lets me, as your host, know you're out there enjoying these reviews of Booker Prize-winning novels (you can follow anonymously if you wish). And, by following, you can also read updates to this blog right in your Blogger Dashboard.

Try it out ... I'd love to see the "followers" counter go from one (me) to, well, anything greater than that. Thanks!

I hope everyone is having a great summer reading Booker winners and whatever else is on your TBR pile. This is just a short post to advise current and prospective participants that the Complete Booker e-mail account will be "unattended" until July 3. Anyone wishing to join the challenge is free to submit their request by e-mail, but please be patient. I promise to respond on July 3.

Happy reading!
Laura

Thanks to Michelle (3m @ 1morechapter.com) for spotting an omission on the winners list in the sidebar. In 1974 there were two winners: Nadine Gordimer and Stanely Middleton. Middleton's book, Holiday, was missing from the sidebar. That's now been corrected.

Thanks Michelle!

Welcome to all participants in the Man Booker Challenge! Dewey and I have joined forces, and the challenge will be hosted from this blog. Here's a reminder of the challenge rules:

To participate in the Man Booker Challenge, you just choose 6 books that have won the Man Booker Prize, or have been shortlisted or longlisted. They can be from any year. The challenge will run from January to December 2008.

If you'd like to join the fun, follow the instructions at The Complete Booker's "How to Join" post. this post also includes a few guidelines which I will repeat here:

Guidelines for Blog Participants:

• Introduce yourself via a blog post, and tell us about any Booker Prize winners you've read previously.
• You may post a review of each book you've read, even if it was a long time ago.
• As you read more books, you may post a full review, link to a review on your own blog, or just create a brief post noting the title(s) read. It's up to you!

Conventions for Labeling Posts:

• Always use your name as a label.
• Use the label, "Progress" for reading list updates.
• For each prize-winning book read, use the year won and the title of the book i.e.; "2006 - The Inheritance of Loss"
• For each nominee read, use the year nominated and note whether it was shortlisted or longlisted i.e.; "2007 - Shortlist"

Welcome to The Complete Booker. This is not so much a reading challenge, but a long-term project in which the participants aim to read all winners of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. There is no time limit, and members read short- and long-listed nominees as well.

You may participate solely on your own blog, or post to this one. If you would like to become a contributor to this blog, please email the moderator (an email address is required, so comments to this post won't work).  Please be sure to include a link to your own blog, if you have one, so it can be included in the participants list on the sidebar.  You will then receive an "invitation" with a link and further instructions.

Guidelines for Blog Participants:

• Introduce yourself via a blog post, and tell us about any Booker Prize winners you've read previously.
• You may post a review of each book you've read, even if it was a long time ago.
• As you read more books, you may post a full review, link to a review on your own blog, or just create a brief post noting the title(s) read. It's up to you!

Conventions for Labeling Posts:

• Always use your name as a label.
• Use the label, "Progress" for reading list updates.
• For each prize-winning book read, use the year won and the title of the book i.e.; "2006 - The Inheritance of Loss"
• For each nominee read, use the year nominated and note whether it was shortlisted or longlisted i.e.; "2007 - Shortlist"

Above all, have fun!
And by the way, be sure to check out 3M's The Pulitzer Project, the inspiration for The Complete Booker!

Whether you're new to reading the Booker Prize, or a long-time devotee, the following sites may be of interest:

Man Booker Prize official site: news, author interviews, and archives of winners, shortlists, and longlists.

Yahoo BookerPrize Group: As described on the group's homepage, this reading group reads "one novel a month, choosing from among the long-listed, short-listed and winning novels of the Man Booker Prize, honouring the best British, Irish or Commonwealth novels each year. "

LibraryThing: For LibraryThing members, there are three library catalogs containing Booker Prize nominees and winners through 2006. This is an easy way to locate and add books to your own catalog!

• Booker Winners
• Booker Shortlist
• Booker Longlist