Who am I?

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Mmm books - they taste good in my brain. So I decided to work in publishing and feed my habit. So now for a living I read wonderful children's books and tell everyone how great they are. It's called publicity! Many thanks to Oliver Jeffers for the name inspiration and header image.

Sunday, 6 November 2011

Carnegie Longlist - My Challenge!

On Friday, the longlists for the Carnegie Medal and Kate Greenaway Awards were announced. If you don't know, these are two of the most prestigious awards for children's fiction and picture books you can win in the UK. For someone in publishing it's a very exciting day, but inevitably you'll be disappointed too - you work on so many books in a year and not every one makes it to the list, which is always sad. Titles are nominated and judged by librarians across the country, and there's also a fantastic shadowing scheme which gets kids involved in reading the titles on the shortlist and voting for their favourites.

Having just moved to HarperCollins, there were some titles from Random House I had been working on over the previous year that I was really desperate to see on the list and so when I loaded up the page on Friday, I did end up wooping out loud and doing a little dance in my seat (alone in a corner, nice and embarrassing)! In particular, two books that I worked on made it - Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough and Small Change for Stuart by Lissa Evans. Hooray! Congratulations ladies! But there were plenty more I've already read and loved or heard about and been intrigued to read. So this led me to set myself...

THE CARNEGIE LONGLIST CHALLENGE!
My challenge, should I choose to accept it (from myself) is to read EVERY BOOK on the longlist*. There are 52, and I've already read 11. So this means reading 41 books. If I wanted to finish reading by the shortlist announcement at the end of March 2012, I'd have approximately 20 weeks and I guess I'd have to read two books a week. Now I am quite realistic and much as I'm a fast-ish reader, I'm going to get distracted by reading the books I'm working on and other things that just catch my eye. But as long as I've read them all by the announcement of the winner in June 2012 I think that's acceptable. Right??

I also want to use this exercise as an adventure in book buying. I'm going to try and obtain the books from as many sources as possible, for example HEY MUM CAN I HAVE THIS FOR CHRISTMAS? Or, more exactly from as many retailers, online sources, first hand, second hand, hardback, paperback, and maybe even blagging a few from booky friends.

In the mean time, as I've read 11 already I'll do some posts reviewing about two or three at once, partly just to show off how many of them I just happen to have signed copies of (ahem, humblebrag).

So, just to recap, I'm going to:

  • Obtain ALL the Carnegie longlisted titles from various amazing book selling sources
  • Read 'em (and occasionally weep)
  • Tell y'all about them
  • Accurately predict the winner and win all of your respect 
Just you wait...


*I can hear you real book bloggers snorting into your keyboards. HA I'VE READ THEM ALL ALREADY! Well, you guys had a head start! No fair!

9 comments:

  1. Good luck! Just had a look at the lists and I've only read three of them... I have about six on my shelves though! :D

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  2. I was thinking of setting myself a similar challenge. I think I've read 10 of them already & have a further 8 sitting on my to read pile. I doubt I'll manage all 52 but I definitely want to make an effort to read as many of them as I can

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  3. Good luck, if it makes you feel better I have only read 1 of them, with another on my TBR pile. :D

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  4. Oooh good luck. That sounds like an awesome challenge.

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  5. This is a fantastic idea! I do hope you stick with it because it'll be fun to watch. Good luck!

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  6. This sounds fabulous Rosi! Good luck! I might have a go myself :)

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  7. For the last 3 years I've read the whole carnegie shortlist before it is announced so I like to think I pick the right books :-) (never predicted the winner though!). This year I've read 21 out of the 52 so far... http://cazapr1.blogspot.com/2011/11/cilip-carnegie-and-kate-greenaway.html

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  8. I never manage to finish the longlist by the time the shortlist is announced. I have read 14 of them so far, I think that's a record for me, and the one I am most desperate to read at the moment is Small Change for Stuart.
    As for predicting the winner ... good luck with that LOL

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  9. Such an awesome idea! I can't wait too see what you think of them all, I don't think I've read that many. I must try and catch up ;)

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