At the heart of it all, I’m a fan. A fan of books and bookstores. A fan of fiction and non-fiction. A fan of authors and publishers. And most of all I’m a fan of great conversations sparked by books. All that to say - I really need more bookshelves.
Us commoners used to get to vote in all the categories. Now, the experts pick the winners in 19 areas, while the public gets to pick the winner for a single 20th category “Book of the Year”. Organizers say that this will “streamline consumer participation and add to the credibility of those who are named winners”.
We’ll just have to wait and see how all this pans out on October 27, 2007.
This month the group is reading James Still’s River of Earth. So find yourself a copy and join up! It’s a group of some well-read folks and is a neat way to discover books that you would have otherwise never picked up.
Apparantly, I am one of the three people that watched The Quill Book Awards last year. Now, organizers say public interest has been so bad, that they are taking voting privleges away from the public and giving them to 6,000 booksellers and experts.