Booker Prize Mania: Do Brits Like Books More Than Americans Do?

The Booker Prize is the British equivalent to our Pulitzer Prize. The very prestigious honor is awarded once a year to a work written by a British and Irish author. Today, the thirteen titles making up this year’s longlist were announced. It’s quite funny that, over in the UK, a literary prize can be big news. In the States, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction comes and goes each year with little fanfare. Do Britons hold their authors in greater esteem than us Americans?

Here’s the full list of nominees, with links to Amazon (if available) for more information. Lots of big names on this list, including Tipping the Velvet novelist Sarah Waters.

The Children’s Book by AS Byatt

Summertime by JM Coetzee

The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds

How to Paint a Dead Man: A Novel (P.S.) by Sarah Hall

The Wilderness: A Novel by Samantha Harvey

Me Cheeta by James Lever Wolf Hall: A Novel by Hilary Mantel

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

Not Untrue and Not Unkind: A Novel by Ed O’Loughlin

Heliopolis by James Scudamore

Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Tóibín

Love and Summer: A Novel by William Trevor

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

In other news:

Daniel Radcliffe: yet another actor who wants to be a director.(The Sun)
Simon Cowell is dating the woman responsible for Susan Boyle‘s makeover.(Mirror)
Perhaps Simon’s new lady love can do something about his woeful wardrobe choices? Or she could suggest a good manssiere?(Daily Mail)
Jerry Hall will bare all in a West End version of Calendar Girls.(The Times)
I’m surprised it took this long: Sacha Baron Cohen has “tightened his security” after threats from Palestinian terrorists.(Telegraph)
The ink is barely dry on their divorce papers, and Blake Fielder-Civil has shown what a stand-up guy he is by revealing ex-wife Amy Winehouse‘s drugs and sex adventures.(The Sun)
An actor from BBC AMERICA’s upcoming comedy, The Inbetweeners will play the young David Cameron (the UK’s Conservative Party leader) in a biopic.(BBC)
Ashley Jensen confirms she’s pregnant with her first baby.(Daily Mail)
A rare photo of The Rolling Stones circa 1964(Telegraph)
Calvin from Hollyoaks recreates the David Beckham Armani ad with the rope.(The Sun)