LISNews: Library Futurists

Olivia Liang of the Guardian/Observers wonders if some masterpieces were overlooked. As the status of the Booker becomes ever more lofty, so the pressure on the jury grows to select the definitive book of the year. Blogging about the decision-making process, judge Alex Clark observed that the realisation 'that we were engaged in choosing the winner of a prize that had been won by Naipaul, not to mention Iris Murdoch, JM Coetzee, William Golding and two of this year's longlisted authors (John Berger and Salman Rushdie), is enough to send one scurrying back to one's looming piles and ever-increasing notes'. The short list follows.