As I’ve read 8.5 out of the 13 books longlisted for the Booker Prize and have been kind of keeping up with other bloggers who have read more, or have read the ones I haven’t read, I thought I’d have a stab at guessing what will be on the shortlist.

• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
• The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies
• Darkmans by Nicola Barker
• Self Help by Edward Docx
• Animal’s People by Indra Sinha
• The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng

The first two are books I’ve read and loved. The second two are books I’ve read and not liked as much but seem to be favourites with others. The third two are books I haven’t read but seem to be very well regarded by those who have.

Any one of the above could be replaced by Winnie & Wolf by AN Wilson, which is the only book on the long list I have no intention of even trying to read as it sounds dreadful. It was on the New Books shelf in the library yesterday and I didn’t even pick it up for a glance. I can’t imagine how it got onto the longlist so some kind of contrariness will probably lead to it making the shortlist too.

I had no intention of reading so many books from the longlist. I just enjoyed one after the other with only a couple of stumbling blocks and I’ve been pleased to find so much good reading material.