Blogs at Amazon

« Preview: Ildefonso Falcones’ La Man | Main | Omni Daily News »

The Best of the NBAs: What Would You Nominate?

by Tom on July 13, 2009

I mentioned in last Tuesday's news that the National Book Award folks are embarking on a Best of the Booker-type endeavor for their 60th anniversary, taking the 77 books of fiction that have won NBAs in the past 59 years*, asking a panel of 600 writers to vote on a shortlist of six, and then opening up the voting to the public for the winner. Regular Omni readers will know that I am pro-awards, rankings, and other such stunts, and so I'm all for it. I'm less interested in the final winner, though--like the Best of the Booker, the conclusion seems foregone enough that it might be anti-climactic: I'll be a little stunned if Invisible Man doesn't win--than I am in the talk about all the other books that the process will churn up. And so I'm glad that the NBA is allowing so much time between the initial announcement and the revealing of the shortlist (in late September), and that they are taking that time to blog each day about one of the winners. So far they've made it through seven, with some posts by other authors (the first being a sharp little piece on Nelson Algren by '07 NBA nominee Rachel Kushner), and others by National Book Foundation exec director Harold Augenbraum, who gave himself the enviable task of reading all 77 nominees (his line on Faulkner's A Fable: "getting a handle on what’s going on is like trying to lift a giant block of hazelnut jelly.")

I'm listing them all below, after the jump (with links! I'm going to sprain my wrist pasting in all those links...). How many have you read? I count 22 (plus the usual various fractions of those story collections from Cheever, O'Connor, Welty, etc.), which doesn't seem like much (although it does include both Gravity's Rainbow and JR, which should count for something!). Which ones would you put on the shortlist? The members of the inner circle of 600 each get to vote for three books for that shortlist of six. I would probably go old and classic with my three: Invisible Man, Augie March, and The Collected Stories of Flannery O'Connor, although if I could go to six I'd add, hmmm, The Moviegoer, The Corrections, and Dog Soldiers? I do have a sweet spot for Goodbye, Columbus, White Noise, and The Great Fire... Which ones do you most want to read that you haven't? I'd love to finally get to Sophie's Choice, which my colleague Lauren was kind enough to give me a copy of a while back (it's a favorite of hers). And I'm intrigued by Conrad Richter's Waters of Kronos, which managed to beat out nominees To Kill a Mockingbird, Rabbit, Run, and The Violent Bear It Away in 1961.

Post your three choices in the comments below, and maybe we'll get a few hundred votes together ourselves to compare with the official list in September.

*And what's with that 77 books in 59 years thing? Well, the NBAs got a little crazy with their award categories for a few years in the early '80s, giving out awards for best paperback fiction, first novel, mystery (hardcover and paperback!), science fiction (hardcover and paperback), and western, which explains the presence of some writers like Louis L'Amour, John D. McDonald, and others that might not have rung a bell as NBA winners (William F. Buckley won an NBA for fiction?!?). Mark Athitakis has a little history on the "raucous, clumsy" 1980 event. Plus they apparently named co-winners for three straight years in the middle '70s. But everybody's on the same playing field now, so if you want to vote for Bendigo Shafter, please do.

Here they are, the National Book Award winners for fiction (all in the Fiction category unless otherwise labeled), and therefore the eligible books for the Best of the National Book Award Fiction prize:

--Tom

Posted in View blog reactions | Email this post | StumbleUpon Toolbar

Technorati Tags:

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Buff on July 13, 2009 at 03:07 PM

Here's my three: From Here to Eternity, Gravity's Rainbow, Stories of John Cheever

Jerri on July 13, 2009 at 04:46 PM

'Sophie's Choice', 'All The Pretty Horses' and 'Charming Billy'

Honolulu Mom on July 13, 2009 at 07:34 PM

Invisible Man, Sophie's Choice, Ship Fever

John Williams on July 14, 2009 at 07:02 AM

The Moviegoer; All the Pretty Horses; So Long, See You Tomorrow

Kiva on July 14, 2009 at 10:41 AM

The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, The Spectator Bird, In America

Spencer on July 15, 2009 at 01:56 PM

From Here to Eternity, White Noise, Gravity's Rainbow.

MIke Morris on July 17, 2009 at 06:12 PM

Gravit's Rainbow, White Noise, All The Pretty Horses.

Pamela Duncan on July 28, 2009 at 06:53 PM

Lonesome Point by Ian Vasquez would get my vote.

battery charger on September 11, 2009 at 09:59 PM

Right now lebron or kobe
Years ago,MJ, MJ, MJ and i forgot MJ in the middle VC.

Right now, it's LeBron.

Kobe is on a better team and has a better coach. Mike Brown? .Here's his game plan:
1) Give LeBron ball.
2) Play online poker and see what happens.

Post a comment

If you have a TypeKey or TypePad account, please Sign In.

Explore Amazon Books

Omnivoracious™ Contributors

Guest Contributors

February 2012

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29      

Archives

Topics

Blogs We Read

MP3 Author Interviews

© 2009 - 2011, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
The AmazonBlogs logo, Omnivoracious and Hungry For The Next Good Book are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use