Urgh.

Mantel is great, as is Tan Twan Eng.
Levy and Moore are pretty dreadful - particularly Levy.
Self is completely unreadable.
Thayil I haven't read, but it doesn't appeal to me.

Mantel or Eng will win - or possibly Self, to show how trendy and hip the Booker judges are.

Starting with Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel.

So, for a start, if you read and enjoyed Wolf Hall, you should read this, and you will enjoy it. The style is similar - effectively a first-person book of Thomas Cromwell, only written in the third person. She's learned from her previous book; it was sometimes difficult to tell exactly who "he" was in that one, and there is no problem (at least for me) in this one. The story is familiar - it's about the few weeks before and just after the execution of Anne Boleyn. Cromwell comes over as a remarkably sympathetic character, considering the single-minded determination with which he ensures that Anne Boleyn and her alleged lovers are executed. It's a marvellous book.

It can be read alone, without a doubt - but I think it's even better if you read Wolf Hall first - there is reference to Cromwell's relationship to Thomas Moore and Thomas Cranmer which are better understood if you've read the first.

Exceptional novel. She wouldn't be the first to win the Booker with a "sequel" novel - Pat Barker won the Booker in 1995 with The Ghost Road which is the third in a trilogy - but it would be a fantastic achievement to win the Booker with both the original and the sequel. For that reason alone, I'm inclined to think that this will not win. But it's certainly worthy of it.

Hmmm. Very well written, and kept my interest. But oh, the subject matter is so depressing and dreary. There seems to be no sign of anything positive about any of the characters. It's basically about a bunch of drug addicts in Bombay. An Indian Trainspotting? (Not that I'm read Trainspotting, or seen the film...)

Not one that appealed to me; I'd be astonished if it won.

I'm leaving Evening Mists to last. So I'll give Swimming Home another go next.

It's short. It's well written.

And that's as far as it goes, as far as I'm concerned. This is the second time I've read the book - I did promise myself that if it was shortlisted, I'd give it another go. But it hasn't improved.

The basic premise is interesting - two couples, plus the daughter of one of them, go on holiday to a villa in the South of France. They find a good-looking young girl swimming naked in the pool (as you do)... She says that she had got her dates mixed up and was expecting to be able to stay in the villa; they find out that there is nowhere else in the village for her to stay, so they invite her to stay in the villa. Unlikely, but OK, so far as it goes. The story covers the week or so that follows.

But it just doesn't work for me. All the characters seem like caricatures to me. We have the brilliant philandering poet; we have the mentally ill fan of said poet, who desperately wants him to read her poem; we have the teenage daughter of said poet, who starts her periods during this week - deeply symbolic, I'm sure; we have the wife of poet who is a war correspondent and has spent most of her married life away from home. We have a cliche'd supporting cast (hippy druggy caretaker; ridiculously good-looking waiter in cafe; couple who run a junk shop back in London, the husband of whom collects antique guns; etc etc.) We have a thin story with a ridiculous ending.

We do not, I hope, have a Booker Prize winner.

Is Mantel going to write a third book? Would be interesting.

I promised I'd give this a second try if it was shortlisted.

There is a good story here, about an old woman who is in a mental home in the seventies, and a doctor who takes an interest in her. We also have a parallel story about the woman when she was young and her relationship with her family and others and also another about the doctor later in life.

It's often quite interesting unpicking the various strands of different timestreams in novels like this.

But when the whole damn thing is ALSO written in a stream-of-consciousness way, with no paragraphs, no obvious dialogue and lots of use of references from the various timestreams, it just becomes hard work; I can't help feeling that this is an exercise in showing off how clever Will Self is. (The title is a reference to a quote from Ulysses by James Joyce - which sort of gives you a clue about what's going on here.)

I suspect that those who claim to enjoy it are those who like to feel how erudite they are, and how superior they are to ordinary readers.

But it IS a marvellous tour-de-force, and I'm forced to admire the fact that it's actually more readable that I would have believed. I actually got to page 150 (of about 480) before I finally decided that I'd had enough. It is just too much like hard work.

But you know what? I think it's going to win - and it will probably be a book that is studied in Literature classes in the future.

I have to admit that all the books on the shortlist have improved on a second reading. This one has improved sufficiently for me to change my original long-list impression (of not much good) to a really quite positive review.

It's the story of a young man on a walking holiday in Germany. He starts at a hotel, and plans on arriving back at the hotel in a week's time. The book alternates between his story as he's on the holiday, and the story of the woman who runs the hotel. As he walks, he's thinking back over his life; the woman also looks back at hers.

I don't want to spoil anything - suffice it to say it's a very good story, but unfortunately has not a single pleasant character in it. But it has more depth than I remembered, and is actually quite gripping.

It's not going to win. But, on re-reading, I think it deserves to be on the shortlist.

Now, onto The Garden of Evening Mists.

This is probably the most "normal" novel in the whole set. It's an account of a Straits Chinese woman in Malaya (as it was) and her relationship with a Japanese gardener after the second world war. It's written in the first person, from the point of view of the woman. (The author is male - I'd be interested in hearing from some of the other posters here how well you feel he succeeded in that.)

It's a very fine story, and written very well - some lovely touches in it. And it is a book which rewards re-reading, to my mind.

This year, the judges have definitely selected books which are unashamedly "literary" - the books have all seemed quite hard going on first reading, and have all improved on a second reading. My summary:-

Bring Up the Bodies - I'd love to see it win, but I think the success of Wolf Hall means it probably won't.

Umbrella - too hard for me, and in my opinion, too clever-clever. But I can see the quality of the writing, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it won.

The Garden of Evening Mists - a lovely novel - I'd enjoy seeing this win. I suspect it'll just fall short.

Narcopolis - naaah. To be fair, I've only read it once, but I can't see enough in it.

Swimming Home - Urgh. I hope it doesn't win.

The Lighthose - Much better on a second reading. Might be an outsider.

So - my prediction is Umbrella or Bring Up the Bodies.

Now watch Swimming Home win.

The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum on October 16th. It's normally made at about 10:30 in the evening, London time.

Couple of things. First, I found a program on BBC2 last week (good old iPlayer) reviewing the books on the shortlist. Intelligent - and contrasting! - contributions from John Mullan, A L Kennedy and Rosie Boycott. Link below if you're interested - they have done a good job of reviewing and discussing the books without giving away anything.

The other is to tell you that the Booker award is being covered live on BBC News 24 from 9:30 UK time - it'll be announced around 9:40. I'll be watching, of course!