Booker novels: Your views

How the shortlisted six line up

The six novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2001 are True History of the Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey; Oxygen by Andrew Miller; The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert; Atonement, by Ian McEwan; Number9dream, by David Mitchell; and Hotel World by Ali Smith.

Have you read them - tell us what you thought. Are they good choices or have the judges missed a trick?

Does Booker Prize has any influence on what you read? Is it still an important literary award?

I think Hotel World is a brilliant read. I hope it wins. It's time a really classic book won the Booker again - there hasn't been one since Arundhati Roy.
Lisa Mason, UK

What's the point, Robert del Valle, of giving prizes to books that are already popular? Pratchett is a wearisome humorist who has written the same book far too often. Having read many of his books I can say that. If you haven't read the shortlist then how do you know they're not better?
John Self, UK

The only title I've read is Hotel World which is excellent, and overall the list contains more books I'd like to read than any previous shortlist I can recall. Interestingly, Archer apparently used to ask his editor Richard Cohen if he had any chance of winning the Booker Prize! Posterity does not record Cohen's reply, perhaps out of politeness.
Alan Simpson, UK

I'm sorry, but I don't think Hotel World is anywhere near the level of previous Booker Prize winners. Let us hope the other five are better.
Jane Moore, UK

Who cares? When the Booker Prize goes to a book that I actually want to read and have a small chance of enjoying (like Ben Elton or Jeffrey Archer), then I'll take notice.
Dave Bernstein, UK

Sorry, Beryl, but I don't care about the world According to Queeney.

Mark Edwards

Where is Philip Pullman? His Dark Materials deserved to be on the short list. Come on Booker panel, are you scared of a "children's author"?
Viv Smith, UK

The day Terry Pratchett wins a Booker is the day I take that award seriously.
Robert del Valle, USA

To not include Beryl Bainbridge on the short list for According to Queeney is to dihonour the Booker Prize itself - the judges must be MAD.
Peter Young, UK

Carey deserves his second Booker for True History of the Kelly Gang. It's a gripping tale of fictionalised history, a detailed first-person account of the events and the circumstances that lead to Kelly becoming an Australian hero. Stunning.
Mark Adams, UK

I've read two of the books - Mitchell and Smith - and think this is a great shortlist: books that people will actually want to read. Sorry, Beryl, but I don't care about the world According to Queeney. Number9dream should win - it's vibrant, ambitious and contains some of the most breathless and breathtaking writing I've come across.
Mark Edwards, UK

Number9dream? Are they kidding? Mitchell's second novel is the only one of the shortlisted books that I've read, but if this has a chance of winning then the others must be truly appalling. It was, hands-down, the worst book I've read all year. The mere suggestion that Mitchell could win makes me want to cry.
Duncan Wood, UK

Hotel World is a revelation of a book. To read Ali Smith is not easy but she confronts you with issues you would prefer to leave undiscussed. Buy it and change your life. This is the new Joyce. I loved it!
Hamish McDougall, France

I think Andrew Miller's Oxygen is one of the best books I've read this year. I get review copies sent to me and therefore I read a lot of books. Number9dream was extremely difficult to get into and I gave up. The True History of the Kelly Gang was awful. Atonement is on my shelf ready to read - the others I've yet to get around to. And no, I don't work for any of the publishing houses!
Sassy, UK