The Man Booker International Prize 2018: Readers to watch
The Man Booker International Prize is a slightly more obscure prize than, say, The Women’s Prize, The Giller Prize, or the plain ol’ Man Booker Prize. That’s partly why I am keen to follow it – it’s not as overwhelming. There are plenty of other #mbi2018 readers, though. Here are a few I’m following. If I missed you, let me know!
The Man Booker International Prize Shadow Jury
These are the cool kids of #mbi2018. They are already posting longlist reviews! Actually, I’ve followed several of them for years, and they are super nice. Here is the full list of shadow jurors. In particular, I recommend Dolce Bellezza for thoughtful reviews and reading challenges galore; and Tony’s Reading List for his sense of humour and commitment to translated fiction (and the best book blog tagline in the game: “Too lazy to be a writer – Too egotistical to be quiet”).
The Man Booker International Prize on Booktube
While the Women’s Prize threatens to take over our literary corner of Booktube, there are a couple of channels following the #mbi2018:
- New-to-me channel Hooked on Books who is very enthusiastic about Die, My Love
- Party-pooper Britta Böhler, who offers some much-needed criticism of the longlist
- The Bookish Land, who introduced me to a new favourite in-translation author, Eileen Chang (not on the #mbi2018 longlist, on account of being dead for 25 years)
- Another new-to-me channel, Beyond the Epilogue, who I now follow on Booktube, WordPress, Instagram and Twitter – that’s when you know it’s real 🙂
- WhatKamilReads, who convinced me to read A Horse Walks Into A Bar (last year’s MBI winner), a major factor in my following the prize
- Eric Karl Anderson, who mentions some (all too rare) **book blogger drama** in his video, and no, I have not figured out who he’s talking about, despite some meticulous Twitter advanced searching!
- Last but not least, The Book Prize Addict herself: PEG:
Everywhere else, use the #mbi2018 hashtag. Here’s some pretty Bookstagram pics to get you started:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgde9-vlP_J/?hl=en&tagged=mbi2018
Reading in Bed 
Hmmm so many books and people to follow, so little time! I like all your shout-outs, it gives me ideas of who to follow. Also-I’m not on instagram, do you think that’s a mistake, or at the very least, weird?
Get on it, girl! I like it for book stuff, it’s a lot more calming than Twitter (and less infiltrated with endless politics…)
An excellent point! The politics on Twitter make me ill.
Thank you for including me in your Man Booker Post. I am reading with such brilliant bloggers that it is a learning experience for me as well. I love translated literature with all my heart, and these lists provide a veritable treasure. (Don’t forget, though, that many of the challenges you linked to are hosted by others; I only host the Japanese Literature Challenge.) xo
I know, but you’re a good promoter of book challenges 🙂 That’s important too!
Thank you so much for the lovely shoutout! 🙂 Part of the fun of following this prize is seeing what other readers think about the nominees.
Yes, hopefully I will write some actual reviews. They’re not always my forte 🙂
Agnese is awesome, so I’m pleased to see you shouting her out. Pressure her into blogging more. Hooked on Books is new to me too, but looking forward to see more from her. I hope there is more booktubers and bloggers talking about the Man Booker International prize apart from those cool kids mentioned about.
Hey you are one of the cool kids! I missed you because you haven’t uploaded on Youtube in a while and… I can’t follow your blog on WordPress? I’m terrible at following blogs that I can’t read in the wordpress reader 🙂
Ive never been cool. I don’t know why you can’t follow my blog on WordPress, that seems weird
Awesome post – thanks for the booktube recs. I’m always looking for non-YA channels to follow but I never know where to start. I don’t think I’ll have time to read the MBI longlist this year but I definitely want to keep up with it.
Yes, this is really a public service. It took me a long time to build up a list of Booktube channels that are grown ups talking about books for grown ups 🙂
Do you follow Portal in the Pages? She’s doing an Around the World reading challenge this year and talks a lot about translated fiction.
Yes I do!
I’m definitely going to check some of these out! I think my fascination with translated fiction started with Beartown last year, and then reading Sanaaq. It was just so interesting reading books that were just … different. I find so many English-language books, especially those authored in the states, are all the same. It’s nice to dive into a different culture and writing style. I actually have three or four of these books at the library right now! I will in no way get them read before the winner is announced but I love getting new translated fic recs.
Ugh I’m on long hold lists for a few of the titles! And I agree, at least this year’s MBI is full of unconventional, experimental books.