Entire Booker Prize long List 2023 - RANKING!

Its time to Rank the entire Booker Prize long List 2023.
My Booker Long List - Stand Alone Reviews...
Old God's Time By Sebastian Barry - • Booker Prize Long List...
The House of Doors By Tan Twan Eng - • The House of Doors By ...
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein - • Study for Obedience by...
The Bee Sting By Paul Murray - • The Bee Sting By Paul ...
This Other Eden by Paul Harding - • This Other Eden by Pau...
Western Lane By Chetna Maroo - • Western Lane By Chetna...
How To Build a Boat By Elaine Feeney - • How To Build a Boat By...
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery - • If I Survive You by Jo...
All the Little Bird Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd Barlow - • All the Little Bird He...
A Spell of Good Things by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ - • A Spell of Good Things...
Prophet Song By Paul Lynch - • Prophet Song By Paul L...
Pearl by Sian Hughes - • Pearl by Sian Hughes -...
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes - • In Ascension by Martin...

[@choco1199]

I hope How to build a Boat wins but i doubt it will. It’s just my favourite I’ve read so far. I also read This Other Eden, All the Little Bird 💕 and The Bee Sting.

[@jpinkpop792]

My first year reading the full longlist (normally i stick to the shortlist) and I've really chosen the wrong year to start doing this 😂

[@rororeads]

😂

[@laurab2572]

In my case I love Pearl, In ascension and Prophet song

[@brendalogan7940]

This Other Eden (Audiobook. Loved) is the only book I’ve read/ listened to. Next I want to read Prophet Song.

[@EmyN]

Love your Booker Prize tier lists!

[@quillber]

Very enjoyable thanks!

[@andreluissoriano]

Thanks for giving us the complete longlist experience! From all the individual reviews to this tierlist. Your efforts are appreciated, sir! I was so disappointed by In Ascension that I just completely dropped any enthusiasm for the longlist. But maybe if I’ll try again, I’ll try with Obedience and This Other Eden.

[@jdgannonable]

It's been great following your reviews! You broke my heart a little bit with the tease about having changed your mind on House of Doors before saying your opinion has gone down haha. I personally loved that one. I'm not reading the list this year but I will be checking out a few of the books I've heard good stuff about. Agree with your assessment on the polarising nature of the list this year, it's fascinating and am looking forward to hearing which will actually make the shortlist

[@kimswhims8435]

I adored House of Doors and Pearl. Prophet Song might make my shortlist. I have Bee Sting, How to Build a Boat and All the little Bird Hearts beside my bed ready to read. I'm not reading Old Gods Time but I might read Obedience still, especially if it makes the shortlist. I've read the others all were ok reads, but not really worth mentioning much, except for In Ascension which I actively hated. I'm so annoyed about the Science and Technical details in it and the 'humourlessness' of it, a terrible book.

[@kmaggs7804]

Hey you done well !

[@rororeads]

I know. Really surprised and happy that a lot of my favs from the longlist made it onto the shortlist :)

[@joangavrilik3009]

Congratulations - well done! You could be a Booker judge.

[@rororeads]

😂 I’ll give them an email :)

[@drawyourbook876]

Looking back, I guess you might be fairly happy with the shortlist

[@rororeads]

Yeah I’m pretty happy with the picks :) still comes down it it being the best of a bad batch.

[@drawyourbook876]

@@rororeads true, I have only read three and they were kind of disappointing. Prophet song and the bee sting are the other two I am debating reading

[@cmleidi]

I agree with WHALE. I thought it was phenomenal, and it should have won the International Booker Prize. As for the Booker, I found so many of the books underwhelming. My least favourite would be your top favourite: Prophet Song. I found most of the book to be just a story about a naive and foolish mother making idiotic decisions while dealing with her annoying children. That book and Bee Sting are the two books I would never want to reread. House of the Doors is my pick from the longlist. It's one of two books I gave five stars to on Goodreads this yr. I adored every sentence of it. The Bee Sting I continue to dislike even more so since finishing it. Western Lane stuck with me and its portrayal of grief is so spot on. I have not finished Ascension or A Spell of Good Things but hope to before the shortlist announcement. (Thank you so much for your videos! I watched them after every book I read.)

[@douggordy]

Tenth year in a row for reading the entire longlist for me and I'd agree this was a rather mediocre year, and I have at least a dozen titles I would have put before any of these also. My ranking, for what it's worth: 1. In Ascension 2. House of Doors 3. This Other Eden 4. Prophet Song 5. The Bee Sting 6. All the Little Bird-Hearts 7. If I Survive You 8. Pearl 9. How to Build a Boat 10. Old God's Time 11. A Spell of Good Things 12. Study for Obedience 13. Western Lane.

[@SupposedlyFun]

Random non-Booker and purely logistical question: what did you use to generate your tiered list? I couldn't find a good template a few months ago for my Pulitzer Project, so I created my own and it's so unwieldy to work with that I hate trying to update it. Anyway, I have appreciated all your thoughts on the Booker longlist!

[@rororeads]

I used tierlists.com Some annoying pop up adverts etc but overall simple to use :)

[@SupposedlyFun]

@@rororeads Thanks! 🥂

[@hazelhood7456]

I absolutely love House of Doors and will read it again sometime. My other picks for the shortlist would be: the Bee Sting (the last quarter didn’t work though for me), Prophet Song, All the Little Bird Hearts, Pearl and This Other Eden. I ended up DnfIng Old Gods Time as the writing didn’t do it fo me. Thoroughly enjoyed reading the long list (first time I’ve done this but it won’t be the last

[@joangavrilik3009]

So interesting! After watching all your reviews, I didn’t know what your shortlist would include. My personal shortlist … Outstanding: The House of Doors, The Bee Sting ( my 2 favorite books this year - outranking DC) Excellent: Study for Obedience Very Good: Western Lane, All the Little Bird-Hearts Good: Old God's Time (not really short-list quality, but everything else fell below it) Even to me, these look like “safe” books. Recently, I have discovered the value of rereading. And I will reread a few if they make the short list - specifically Prophet Song, If I Survive You & This Other Eden (now longlisted for the National Book Award)

[@benreadsgood]

Loved this (even if I am team #loveit on The Bee Sting’s ending). 4/6 the same in our personal shortlists 👀

[@rororeads]

Turns out we did quite well mate!

[@benreadsgood]

@@rororeads I think you win the award for most accurate shortlist! 👏

[@rororeads]

@@benreadsgood I’ll be waiting by the phone for the Booker panel to tell me what I’ve won!

[@CaroReads787]

I’ve enjoyed all of these videos very much. Thanks for the time you’ve put into them. I’ve only read If I Survive You so far but you piqued my interest in a few more, particularly Prophet Song.