The Booker shortlist and my plan of possible INACTION
The List came out yesterday and I updated the last of my longlist blogs last night accordingly (see it at this link). As you can see there, my predicted shortlisted included four of the actually shortlisted novels. The other two were novels I had not read, but there promised to read IF shortlisted. Here is the shortlist:
| Read on: | Title | Link to my blogs |
| Not read: To consider reading on Kindle | The End of Everything by M. John Harrison (Serpent’s Tail) | n/a |
| 8/9/26 -14/9/26 | The Disappearers by Marlon James (Hamish Hamilton) | 1. Mentioned during reading 2. Final blog |
| Not read: To consider reading on Kindle | Black Bag by Luke Kennard (John Murray) | n/a |
| Finished 11/7/26 | The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (Viking) | Final blog |
| Finished 6/6/26 | John of John by Douglas Stuart (Picador) | 1. Blog 2. Additional blog on weaving |
| 17/8/26 – 24/8/26 | May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (Granta) | Blog |
My ‘spontaneous’ plan of possible INACTION, is a decision I made this morning. For me, it is radical. I posed myself the possibility of leaving my reading as it is – INACTION because an intention not to read Luke Kennard’s Black Bag and John M. Harrison’s The End of Everything. The first is described by the Booker judges as a comic novel, not a favourite form for me, and worse still, a campus novel about psychology teaching. The second as innovative science fiction – again not my black bag.
But in truth, I think I also feel a certain concern that at least All Them Dogs has not been shortlisted, for as working class queer fiction it is an excellent example. Here is my blog on it: In Djamel White’s novel ‘All Them Dogs’ being ‘officially an adult’ is learning to no longer be ‘fighting an urge to pop’ and becoming in control of how you appear and how much you visibly react: ‘Keep it there and keep it steady’. But in that novel the desire to be ‘officially an adult’ is the reason we lose responsibility for ‘the child’ we find in the world or inside us, failing to safeguard it: the mark of effective adult responsibility. – Steve_Bamlett_blog.
The plan of INACTION has began to transform from a spontaneous feel to a hardened decision even now, if not yet resolution. I have always considered the Booker as a literary game though it helps me often to find and read books I might not have done otherwise. However, this year I had already read three of the books before the shortlist came out. These coincidences may be more than coincidences – in that the team this year have chosen many obvious literary landmarks and prior longlisted authors and has avoided most debut writers in shortlistin, except for Kennard’s book.
I loved the books I read and the shortlist seems a glory, but there are so many books to read and re-read. For this year I want to say goodbye to the Booker, only rejoicing when the winner is announced, hoping that it may be Marlon James or Douglas Stuart.
It is not very firm that decision and I doubt many will find it spontaneous, but here I stand, until I sit down to read again.
Bye for now,
With love
Steven xxxxxxx
