The Richard and Judy shortlist for 2007 has been announced. For anyone who skipped a beat, these guys host a television book club in the UK and the books they choose will almost certainly hit stratospheric sales figures. (The books on last year's Channel 4 programme shortlist sold 10m copies between them!)
I am much in favour of publicising books in this way, and wish we had an equivalent here. (A little celebrity endorsement would do wonders for books in the Malaysian context! Who would you choose in lieu of Richard and Judy?)
There are some interesting choices on the list, and at least three books on the list are ones I plan to read. The eight chosen books are:
The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld,
The Girls by Lori Lansens,
Restless by William Boyd,
Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde,
Semi-Detached by Griff Rhys Jones,
This Book Will Save Your Life by AM Homes
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson
You can more read about the titles here.
14 comments:
Sharon, I think Malaysia could do with an equivalent of Oprah's book endorsement and Richard & Judy. I'm thinking of Anita Sarawak, she had that talk show on Astro but it had to do with matters of the heart. She and her husband could do another one for books.
The Siti and Mawi book list?
lydia - nice one!
ted - i was also thinking of the siti and mawi bookshow
but do any of these people READ???? you gotta have credibility as well as bankability
Sharon, wasn't Siti roped in for the National Reading campaign month at one time?
If Siti and Mawi were to come up with a booklist, I think it may contain only Malay romance titles. Anita and hubby's book list will be more varied I think.
Lilian Too's booklist. She is expanding into writing, right? She wrote book titled Empress Wu something , right?
I'd like to see Sharon as a host on TV perhaps as part of a morning show. She could be called Biblibibuli or Bibs for short, and she would invite fascinating people, whom she knows many of, and ask them what they read and why. After a few months she could come up with a Bibs Books List.
Kam could talk about his new book. And Lydia, and Yvonne, Dina. Jit and Kee Thuan Chye on their plays. She could invite Lillian Too too.
The possibilities ....
Agree 200% with Animah.
If anita (and husband), mawi or siti are given book-tv-show, I will personally hunt them down and feed them to hungry dolphins.
This, I swear.
you so cruel to dolphins, sufian!
i really don't want to be on tv. it needs someone with looks and personality who doesn't fluff their lines or freeze when they see a camera (all unlike me)
eliza - yes, jit, bless him. he's a delight when he talks about books ... and a delight when he talks about anything, of course.
sharon i keep telling you, you should be on tv. you'll be great!
if so will need a stylist and a hairdresser dancing attendance ms d. i'm a sartorial nightmare.
aiyah itu bole bikin... what we need is a video cam and a youtube account. then... you're a star :)
yeh ke? personally i think you would have a terrible struggle to smarten me up.
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