Call off the hounds: the Not the Booker prize vote stands

Well, that was bracing ! Calling our own voting system and the legitimacy of our competition into question was always going to be risky. And, as many have you have pointed out, selecting a second list was, on the whole, an unsatisfactory suggestion. Not least because (as some of the better counters among you realised) it was pretty clumsily compiled. All the same, I actually found the whole process quite energising. I am, as beaten boxers like to say, happy to take positives. One of the intentions of the Not The Booker prize has always been to foster discussion about the legitimacy of various forms of literary competition and we've certainly had that. It was fascinating. Plenty of eloquent and strong arguments were made on both sides. I personally feel like I've emerged wiser as well as older. Hopefully, we've also been able to clear the air about what may be called tactfully "the social media question". The argument that would inevitably have emerged in later rounds has taken place – in spades – and now we can get back to books. Or, we almost can, after a quick breakdown of the voting. Totals: "List one" (the shortlist that gained the most votes in the first round of voting): 114 "List two" (the shortlist we put together of books that seemed to be doing well without social media input): 48 Confused people turned still wondering how to vote for The Cuckoo Boy, Deloume Road and The Canal: more than 10 Alternative lists: about seven Abandon the whole thing: four or five Abandon me: three or four Abandon everything and hide in the darkweb: one (There were also a number of commentators quite legitimately asking why Stewart Home's Blood Rites Of The Bourgeousie was left off the longlist, to whom I can only say: sorry. I made a simple mistake and didn't spot it. Hopefully mentioning here how interesting it looks will go some way towards making amends.) What all that means is that we now have an official, beyond-dispute shortlist, which is as follows: The Cuckoo Boy by Grant Gillespie Pictures of Lily by Matthew Yorke Deloume Road by Matthew Hooton The Canal by Lee Rourke Advice for Strays by Justine Kilkerr That's listed in order of votes received. It's going to be very interesting to see if we end up changing that around in later rounds. In the meantime, I'm going to be reading through the books in alphabetical order, by author's surname. That means The Cuckoo Boy by Grant Gillespie is first up. I can't wait to see what it's like.