Judging the International Booker longlist based on first sentences
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- čas přidán 12. 07. 2024
- A good first impression is critical, even when you're reading a book, so I decided to get to know the International Booker Prize 2024 longlist by reading, judging and ranking their first sentences.
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Books mentioned:
📖 Not a River, by Selva Almada (translated by Annie McDermott)
📖 Simpatía, by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón (translated by Noel Hernández González and Daniel Hahn)
📖 Kairos, by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated by Michael Hofmann)
📖 The Details, by Ia Genberg (translated by Kira Josefsson)
📖 White Nights, by Urszula Honek (translated by Kate Webster)
📖 Mater 2-10, by Hwang Sok-yong (translated by Sora Kim-Russel and Youngjae Josephine Bae)
📖 A Dictator Calls, by Ismail Kadare (translated by John Hodgson)
📖 The Silver Bone, by Andrey Kurkov (translated by Boris Dralyuk)
📖 What I'd Rather Not Think About, by Jente Postuma (translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey)
📖 Lost on Me, by Veronica Raimo (translated by Leah Janeczko)
📖 The House on Via Gemito, by Domenico Starnone (translated by Oonagh Stransky)
📖 Crooked Plow, by Itamar Vieira Junior (translated by Johnny Lorenz)
📖 Undiscovered, by Gabriela Wiener (translated by Julia Sanches)
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00:00 Longlist thoughts
03:33 First sentence ranking
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Thank you so much for watching.
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loved this. the sticky note leaderboard?? production value!
i'm terrible at reading translated books but "dudes on a boat, shit's going down" is one of my favorite genres so i'm looking forward to getting my hands on Not A River
Haha it was high time I did something with that cork board - it's been sitting under my desk for months!
My interest in Not a River was definitely pumped up after recording this video.
“But on the other hand, I’ve done some arts and crafts” 😂
Just brilliant. You can’t beat a video where props have been made.
And yes to more dogs on covers, and cats on covers. I love an animal on a cover.
The board conveniently has the right number of spots to be re-used for the English language Booker later in the year too 😅
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but: there are too many cats on covers. And often on books that have nothing to do with cats?!?! Dogs though. We need more.
@@benreadsgood yeah it’s not fair also to those of us easily enticed by a cat that sometimes there is no cat content in these books! Dog covers, yes please, many more books featuring dogs! I’m going to be very disappointed if no dogs appear in the Women’s prize books this year too (on a side note).
@@benreadsgood also yay for another appearance of the show stealing board to come next Booker season! 😊
It might actually be making an appearance sooner than you think 👀
@@benreadsgood ooh I am intrigued!
Fun! If you read any of them it would be fun to know how your feelings about the first sentence reflect how you feel about the whole book.
Ooh yes, definitely will do this!
More dogs on book covers! I’d back that campaign
Forget dust jackets, we want dogs jackets!
This was really fun to watch! And gave a good sneak peek too into all of these titles. I fully agree with your ranking!
Woohoo, glad you enjoyed it, and that we agree on the ranking! 🤝
White Nights does have a beautiful cover I agree. Must look up that publisher! Loved hearing these first sentences 😊
Thanks Charlie! Hoping to prioritise White Nights soon, and fingers crossed more MTO titles pop up in bookshops. They also published Cross Stitch in the UK, which I think was a Republic of Consciousness US longlister.
The best first line battle video on CZcams!! I'm so here for the homemade crafts meets International Booker, and yes, why do people risk glass shards in their champagne with the flamboyance of a sabre?...more money than sense I think. Really enjoyed this video and made me laugh in so many places. Will be interested to see if the shortlist matches your selection.
Thanks so much! I must confess I have drunk from a sabred champagne bottle before... but it was at an event and apparently the only way they were serving 😂 Definitely more money than sense!!!
Always fun to watch.
Thanks for watching! But: where did your cheese comment go?!? 😂
Always love your videos and this one is fun. I love the writer one.
Thanks Kier, really appreciate it! The second sentence after that was also pretty great, it was something like "The family is just fine, it's the writer that suffers a terrible fate". But I thought it was only fair to just to the first sentence 😅
@@benreadsgood oh that is really great! I feel like it could also be playing on Anna Karenina "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” I also just always love fiction discussing writing itself.
Oh that’s interesting - I hadn’t made a connection to Anna Karenina but definitely has resonances!
I think this is my favourite video of yours. Cackling all the way through.
Thank you - so glad you enjoyed it!!! 🙌
Funny and interesting idea. I've enjoyed it. Thanks
Thanks so much for watching - glad you enjoyed it!
I enjoyed this so much, thank you! I decided to read the three latin american books and those first senteces were really good, so I'm taking this as a good sign for my selection... 😂 happy reading to you!
So glad you enjoyed it! It was lots of fun to make. Those Latin American sentences did do pretty well with me, didn't they!
This was so much fun!!
I finished Crooked Plow this week - brilliant book!
Thanks Gem - had loads of fun making it! And good to hear Crooked Plow is banging. I might have to nab a copy if it makes the shortlist...
@@benreadsgood you should nab a copy even if it doesn’t make the shortlist 😈😈😈
I know exactly how this would be going if we were in a bookshop 😂
Wow, that's fascinating. I'm also curious about the last sentences (if spoiler-free is possible😅).
Thanks for watching! Last sentences are a little harder to get hold of they’re not in the samples, but would definitely be interesting to compare if I ever read a whole longlist 😅
This was a lot of fun. Gosh, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has geeky bookish, yet oldskool / homemade..projects lying around the house. I have a clipboard with all of the Womens prize for fiction books on...highlighted in order of which I think will be most appealing and then an attached pen to tick off when they are read ..next to my bed!😂 ....and that's just one of several such projects. Lol.
Anyway.....I'm really interested in reading Crooked Plow , Kairos and Not a river ( which I agree, has the best first line!)
Haha I love the sound of that clipboard!!!
Glad we're on the same page about Not A River's first sentence 🤝 Stunning!
I've read Lost On Me, The Details and Not a River so far and my ratings were 4.5, 4 and 2 stars. And I've just started Kairos.
Crooked Plow and Undiscovered had my favourite first sentences.
Thank you! Lost On Me and The Details have intrigued me.
2 stars for Not a River is a surprise - from that first sentence I was expecting a banger!
@@benreadsgood Maybe it will be for you. I think our reading taste is not that similar.
That was such a great idea, Ben! I have an old abandoned twitter account where I would post first sentences to books I imagined myself writing. I just logged into the account after six years of being away to peruse what I'd written there. Here's a couple examples that I quite liked:
She was one of those lawyer wives whose home looked like a Laura Ashley wet dream.
Candide was a dwarf, pole dancer at Club Candy Cane with a penchant for quoting Malcolm X to the point of extreme irritation.
Over a lunch of crab bisque & sparkling mineral water, Peggy anguished with Mary Claire whether to donate or auction her Frankenthaler.
There was that faint aroma of urine to him that people of his age tend to have.
The acrid musk wafting from the arm pit of the African boy standing next to him on the rush hour train made him think of his gap year.
Geoffrey dropped his plain white Turnball & Asser shirt into the hamper when he saw what looked like a woman falling past his bedroom window.
Thomas sat on the bus, his head leaning against the cool glass window, a bologna sandwich and juice box in a crumpled paper sack on his lap.
Trundal Holmquist, Trundy to his mates at Harrow and Cambridge, couldn't quite place the face, but recognized the cynical smirk instantly.
Helmut wasn't surprised to see Hans-Joachim walking through the door of Punkt, but he was disturbed by the man's one-armed, drag queen companion.
The air stank of Jheri Curl, sour sweat, and stale spunk as Wanda rolled her housekeeping cart into Room 27.
Thanks for watching! Certainly some arresting (and challenging!) sentences there. The falling lady is the most gripping one of that bunch for me.
So many stereotypes. Wow!
wait this is such a cool video idea
It was lots of fun to make!!!
Let Us Descend is wonderful - like all Jesmyn Ward’s writing. Love this video of yours - fun concept.
Thanks for the recommendation! I still haven't read any Ward, but Salvage the Bones is a book I am *definitely* picking up this year.
So welcome! I love her writing. I own Salvage the Bones but have not read it yet. Will be curious to hear your thoughts!
Swedes pronounce their Js like Ys!
Fun video. I'm not very enthusiastic about these books also..
Thank you, that's super useful to know! I think I get stumped by some Anglo-Swedes who pronounce the J in their name like an English J, like Ulrika Jonsson. Now I know the truth!
This is so much fun! The leaderboard is really extra, so fancy 😁. If I was a translator, I'd be really pissed if my name was buried inside somewhere.
Haha thanks, I like to take the opportunity to be extra now and again.
I have no idea why translators' names are not just on covers as standard. I wonder if its a marketing thing and people being historically disinclined to pick up translated books for fear of them being difficult... times have definitely changed though so maybe in a few years we won't need to complain about it.
This was a lot of fun! I dnf'd A Dictator Calls so that tracks. Ha! I'm about to start Crooked Plow.
A Dictator Calls was so intriguing until every Booktuber I follow was not impressed by it.
Shame to hear A Dictator Calls didn't work for you. I am still debating whether to give it a go before I have to take it back to the library.
Ooo lots of new ones for me to get stuck into here - thank you! Love the potential Ferrante author! Going to have to read that one now and see what I reckon!
I would love to know the truth one day. Is he Ferrante? Is it him and his wife? Is it all a conspiracy theory and Ferrante is actually Colleen Hoover?
Reading first sentences is my one of the main ways I decide if a book is for me! This was a fun video! p.s. I’ve requested my library to purchase ‘Crooked Plow’ for me based on the first sentence. 👍🏼
It's a nice little taster, isn't it! And that Crooked Plow first sentence is definitely intriguing. I might pick it up if it makes the shortlist!
I hope you give The Silver Bone a try, it's a mystery and historical fiction set in very divided Ukraine in 1919 as various powers fight for its territory (sounds familiar?). Also, US edition does display translator on the cover. Your edition has better cover art though.
Does sound interesting, and a few people I know who have read it did enjoy it. I might do if it gets shortlisted, but my reading plans are currently overflowing (and it's on the more expensive side over here at the moment!).
Hahahaha! Good theory Ben. We will see how it works out!
Given I've only read one of the books, it's as good a guess as any other I could make 😂
If the top six do end up on the shortlist, it is such a boss moment. And I will agree that we can all just read from your list in the future to save time. Thank you for that! 😂
Hope you do end up enjoying the ones you have though!
Also, giving us arts and crafts and scriptless at the same time - another boss move, I have to say 😜🥳
Hahaha on this channel prizes are all about efficiency and successful predictions!!! Why READ the books when you can just RANK them!
But, in all seriousness, this was a fun exercise to get me excited about a few I hadn't given much thought to!
Glad to hear it! I’m definitely using it in the future when book shopping or even deciding from my own shelves if I’m not sure what to reach for. Also, side note, even if I’ve not read an entire longlist, I still feel invested to the point where I “judge” the shortlist 🤦♀️ (women’s prize for non-fiction has got me feeling some type of way…) even though I know it’s subjective based on the judges and they’ve actually read them all!! 😅🤷♀️ But I can’t not hear booktube opinions obviously
Oh I am here for judging/ranking/predicting without reading. It's half the fun!
I like a lot: Not a river, The details, Lost on me due to the style and the way that they depict intimate moments.. I like it: Kairos, Crooked plow, A dictator calls. Not really enjoy, not disgusting: Silver bone, The house on via Gemito, Undiscovered. And deception: Simpatía
Read The Details before the longlist announcement. Enjoyed it, a pleasant reading experience, but pretty forgettable. Bought Crooked Plow, and will get the Almada. Thinking I may get the Raimo for WIT, it was on the FT summer reads last year and I think it fits that vibe.
I may give The Details a go as an audio/physical duo read. I'm doing it right now with Tom Lake and it's such a great way to experience a book.
Ooh. Totally forgot I'd started Silver Bone for this prize. Maybe not a good sign. Anyway, I like the first sentence and it definitely sets up the story well.
Forgetting you'd started a book... how many do you have on the go?! 😂
It's definitely got a cracking first sentence though, that's for sure.
@@benreadsgood At last check I had about 85 unfinished books on my devices. 🙄 A couple outdated tech books are permanent dnfs; otherwise I hate to say a definite no to anything, though the cozy mood reads are low priorities.
I just pretend like my digital collection is a backup library 😂
Just downloaded Crooked Plow sounds intriguing
Seems to be the one most consistently getting positive reviews from people, so a good one to turn to from the longlist!
Yes, more dogs please!
"Do we need to know about toilets on page one?!?" 😂
Fun video!
Thank you for watching! And I fully stand by my feeling that toilets should appear no earlier than page 2 😂
Never too late! Your opinions are valued by more than 4000 people now . . . . I'm sure we've all been waiting!
I was excited about Kairos and still am. I've wanted to read that for a long time, so now is the time. I'm also desperate to get my hands on the Urzsula Honek novel, and I did order a copy from the publisher. Hoping it gets to me soon - I didn't even get a confirmation email when I ordered it. I've also picked up a copy of the Ia Genberg book, The Details. It seems interestin - I loved the first sentence. :) I ordered Not a River, but it's not published here until later. I'm even MORE excited by her backlist, which I became aware of thanks to lovely Charlotte Molloy. The Brick Makers sounds amazing.
I have Crooked Plow too. And, believe it or not, my local Barnes & Noble had a sole copy of The Silver Bone so I bought it. It got good reviews in the New York Times, so I decided to give it a try. And the Simpatia book I ordered immediately because I love dogs. It's actually arriving tomorrow. Can't wait!
Good to see a new video. You look tired.
Don't worry - I didn't get a confirmation email from MTO either, but it did turn up! If it takes a really long time though, they're quite responsive on Instagram. I think they've just got a big backlog of orders so they're trying to get the books printed and shipped as quickly as they can.
Hope you love the ones you've picked up!
To judge by this video you don't need to worry about scripting. That leaderboard was well spent preparation time though. 😄 Based on first sentences I'm happy with my decision to focus on the Women's Prizes and get to the International Booker whenever. I usually like to have a whole paragraph before I decide though, so I won't reject them out of hand. 😂
Haha thank you. I wish non-scripted was quicker but it takes me SO MUCH LONGER. I end up waffling way more and have far too much footage, which is an editing nightmare 😂
A whole paragraph! You are clearly much more generous than I am 😅
Well, as a Swede, I can't help myself. The G:s in Genberg would be pronounced the same way J in Josefsson is pronounced, kind of like the y in "yay". And the e in "Gen" would sound more the ee in "deer". And the "berg" wouldn't be like "burg" in burger, but more like the e in "hey". You can thank be by trying it in your next video 😁 Also, I would look for hidden meaning in the Spanish names too. And I very much enjoyed the non-scriptedness and the props, well done. AND ALSO I very much appreciated how the post-it notes were flat and not curled, like a boy did it.
THANK YOU! This is the kind of Swedish tutorial I needed 😅 I read it the other day so will soon be saying it properly in a video when I review it.
I have (somewhat sadly) extensive sticky note experience from past jobs, so I know to pull them down off the stack, not up 😂
@@benreadsgood I shall be looking out for that and judging your pronunciation thoroughly! 😄 Oooh so not sideways? That's new! Expert post-it:er, very rare. I'm impressed. And happy to hear the post-it jobs are in the past! 😅
Give us the art and crafts!
Some fun first sentences, but I’m still lacking interest in this longlist and virtually all of the Women’s Prize for fiction longlist. Hoping to hear some feedback on the full books soon that might tempt me to read some of them.
I suppose the good side of that is having lots of space to read those books you've been wanting to get to, rather than the shiny new prize lists. Cherish that time!
@@benreadsgood Indeed!
I've read 11 of the 13 books of the long-list. Simpatía for me has a terrible ending, a deus ex machina, is one of my disappointing of the long-list. And Undiscovered has an interesting topic but the style sometimes makes me difficult to immerse. Crooked plow for me is very interetsing due to the strong femalke characters and the ideas of colonialism and slavery.
11/13 is a great achievement! Are you planning on reading the other 2 to get the full set, or giving them a miss?
Crooked Plow does seem like one that everyone is loving.
Simpatica had weird sex scenes but they were brief and advanced character dev. Its an ok book...
Good to know, thanks! Definitely been hearing mixed (and to be honest, tipping negative) things about it.
Kairos so low! Have you started reading any in full yet? Im enjoying quite a few, lots of great writing, Im currently on Kairos and Undiscovered
I think if I'd picked the first sentence of the book proper, rather than the prologue, it might have fared a bit better!
The only one I've read is Things I'd Rather Not Think About, but nothing new since. This video went up right after it was recorded and edited (my poor bedtime last night).