Gayle > Recent Status Updates

Booker longlist 10/13
Booker shortlist 4/6

1/2 stars! 1/4 stars! Finally!!!
Question is will we go back and amend every single book? 😅

Lots of progress made whilst trying to get the motivation up do get in with my work!
Disturbing, but very very much a page turner.

I love a book that has me pulling other books off the shelf. Just spent the last hour reading Auden. (I too prefer Auden to Eliot)

I’ve been reading this with the kids. It makes me sad that kids don’t learn to recite poetry at primary school like I did when I was a child in Scotland. I wonder if it still happens there - the Burns, Blake and Stevenson?? Of course this book was not made with this hemisphere in mind, so we are following the seasons in another land and we are totally ok with that!

Booker longlist 9/13
Booker shortlist 3/6

So given this is 8/13, I don’t think I’ll read the Booker longlist before the shortlist is announced as planned 😆

I had the best night last night. Dinner and one of my favourite bands with a bit of time to kill in between. Wandered a local bookshop and bought this short story collection. I already know after reading the first that Ditlevsen is going to be an author I love.

In hand! Excited to read this one.

I think I may be an outlier with this one. I’m enjoying it. Beautifully written.

7/13 Booker longlist

Not a lot of time for reading at the moment, so this has become a slow read for me, but I am liking it very much.

Already invested through the comparison of the clean lines of cars of the past vs the bubble like nature of new cars!

6/13 2026 Booker longlist

In case of reading emergency - break glass.
(That time is now after my last book choice!)

Well it gets better after part 1. Making me think about Knausgaard writing that “said” is always best, and I know she has read that too, somewhere. How many times can we say “said”?? I’ve read dialogue that has stunned me, in many styles, but this just tried way too hard to be clever - and failed. The following part came like a breath of air, without all the talk, but still not without its problems.

At the end of part 1, I’m certainly hoping better get less boring and glib. So far we have two people talking about one’s job and how he’s leaving/left it. I don’t like this kind of talk in real life, and I certainly don’t like it in a book. Let’s hope part two has a little more substance.

5/13 Booker longlist

I’m really liking the voice and the writing style of this one. Seeing parallels in regard to memory and place in all the Booker Prize books I’ve read thus far. This is only the 4th, so it will be interesting to see going forward if this continues as a theme.
I have another Aridjis book sitting unread on my shelf: ‘Asunder’ I will absolutely read it in the near future.

4/13 Booker longlist 2026

Attempting to read the Booker longlist before the winner is announced this year. Book 3/13

I don’t want to waste my current excellent reading experience in noisy play centres and the like during these school holidays, so appreciating this fun read for this purpose so far - definitely one that can stand up to interruptions and much noise without me getting grumpy!

Beautiful writing that is a joy to read.

Going in with some trepidation - I’ve owned this book since the 90s and I am only getting around to reading it now.
As an aside, I had absolutely no idea Margaret Drabble is her sister until yesterday.