Like many bookworms, I am a big fan of lists.  As you can see from my crazy reading schemes, I like systems and ruled and reading games, and what bigger reading game can there be than to read all of some kind of book, whether it be the Modern Library Top 100 Novels of the Past Century, or every book that ever won the Booker Prize.  Maybe it is a hold over from my Booklandia days, but I do like listing out all I’ve reading and checking things off the list.  Therefore, I am going to add a feature where I take a couple of famous literary lists (at least the two mentioned above, maybe more), and keep track of what I’ve read and what I haven’t, in hopes of reading them all.  Nerd alert, I know, but this where I get my fun.

So, in honor of The God of Small Things, let’s start with the Man Booker Prize winning novels.  The Booker Prize, now in its 39th year, is meant to honor the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or Ireland (no Americans need apply!).  So far, the following novels have been awarded the prize.  I have marked the ones I’ve read in bold.

2009: Wolf Hall, Hillary Mantel

2008: The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga

2007:  The Gathering, Anne Enright

2006: The Inheritance of Loss, Keran Desai

2005: The Sea, John Banville

2004: The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst

2003: Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre

2002: The Life of Pi, Yann Martel

2001: The True History of the Kelly Gang, Peter Carey

2000: The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood

1999: Disgrace, J.M. Coetze

1998: Amsterdam, Ian MacEwan

1997: The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

1996: Last Orders, Graham Swift

1995: The Ghost Road, Pat Barker

1994: How Late it Was, How Late, James Kelman

1993: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Roddy Doyle

1992: Sacred Hunger, Barry Unsworth

1992: The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje

1991: The Famished Room, Ben Okri

1990: Possession, A.S. Byatt

1989: The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro

1988: Oscar & Lucinda, Peter Carey

1987: Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively

1986: The Old Devils, Kingsley Amis

1985: The Bone People, Keri Hulme

1984: Hotel du Lac: Anita Brookner

1983: Life & Times of Michael K, J.M. Coetze

1982: Schindler’s Ark,Thomas Keneally

1981: Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

1980: Rites of Passage, William Golding

1979: Offshore, Penelope Fitzgerald

1978: The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch

1977: Staying On, Paul Scott

1976: Saville, David Storey

1975: Heat & Dust, Ruth Power Jhabvala

1974: The Conservationist, Nadine Gordimer

1974: Holiday, Stanley Middleton

1973: The Siege of Krishnapur, J.G. Farrell

1972: G, John Berger

1971: In A Free State, V.S. Naipul

1970: The Elected Member, Bernice Rubens

1969: Something to Answer For, P.H. Newby

So, not a great showing - only 11 books, though I have at least 3 more on my to be read pile.  Nice to have a goal though, and I will update the list as I read more (and as more Booker Prizes are announced!)

Which Booker Prize winning novels have you read? Which are your favorites? Right now, I am torn between Possession and The Ghost Road, both of which I adored.

UPDATE: 1/8/08 - 12 books!!