The linked Google document Books -Fiction is a list of books that have been shortlisted or won the following prizes:
- Booker Prize
- National Book Awards
- Most Listed Books
As I gradually chew away at the list, I'll add other awards as well. Special thanks to Wikipedia for the source info.
Why?
Some time ago I was pondering the latest winner of the Booker Prize. I had first come across the prize when given Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, which I loved. That book won the "Booker of Bookers", the best book to win the prize in its 25 (?) years of history. The pondering followed the lines that I should read award winning books.
To get started I needed to know what books had won the Booker prize, which of course the fantastic free resource Wikipedia provided. That then lead me to the shortlisted books, and a number of other prizes such as the Hugo and Nebula awards.
The problem with the Wiki lists (in my humble opinion) is they are not easy to use as a reference due to the author's names not being listed in a consistent manner nor the books or years. So I took the task of listing them all in a spreadsheet. The author's names, barring a few mistakes, are in order of surname then first name (and initials as the case may be).
I then printed the lists out very small to fit into my wallet, and as I find myself on occasion in a second hand bookshop or the library I look for the award winners.
This truly provides some inspiring reading.
Be inspired - and shine.
