DEADLINE EXTENDED – WE HAVE EXTENDED UNTIL JANUARY THE 31ST 2012! 

Not content with producing a book based banter filled podcast each week, Gavin and Simon have decided to set up a prize with the aim that anyone in the world (who can get on the internet and happens to pass by The Readers podcast or either of their blogs) can vote for, and just as importantly can also judge too. We decided that the end of 2011 with Christmas  and general busyness we should extend your votes until the end of January 2012.

What do the winning authors win? Not a lot, just kudos really and the fact they were the best books as chosen by readers from here there and everywhere.

We want to celebrate the diversity in writing be is seen as ‘genre’ or ‘literary’ all you need to do, wherever in the world you are, is download the below voting form and email your responses to things such as Best Debut Novel to Best Opening Line, Best Character to your Best Book of theYear. The only clause it that the books you nominate need to have been published in hard back or paper back for the first time (where you are) between January the 1st of 2011 and December the 31st 2011.

We hope you will all join in and also spread the word. All initial long listed nomination forms must be emailed to bookbasedbanter@gmail.com by January the 31^st 2012. The long listed titles will be announced a week later, along with details on how to vote for the shortlist. The forms can be found below the nominated novels so far…

Don’t forget to spread the word and get as many people voting for their favourite books as you can.

Please note if you vote you could win a signed first edition hardback of ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ by Jennifer Egan. Details here. Good luck!

Best debut novel of 2011:

The Afterparty by Leo Benedictus
Open City by Teju Cole
The Brotherhood by Y.A. Erskine
Mr Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt
Solace by Belinda McKeon
Snowdrops by A D Miller
The Tigers Wife by Tea Ohrect
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Vaclav and Lena by Hayly Tanner
We the Animals by Justin Torres
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

Best crime/thriller of 2011:

Getting Off – Lawrence Block The Affair – Lee Child
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Brotherhood by Y.A. Erskine
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill
Death omes to Pemberley by P D James
11/22/63 by Stephen King (x2)
The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
The Secret in their Eyes by Eduardo Sacheri
Crime by Ferdinand von Schirach

Best science fiction/fantasy of 2011:

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
The Double Shadow by Sally Gardner
11/22/63 – Stephen King
Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Best book in translation 2011:

My Two Worlds by Sergio Chejfec
The True Deceiver – Tove Jansson
We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen
Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Asa Larsson
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Tomorrow Pamplona by Jan van Mersbergen
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villabolos

Best memoir/autobiography of 2011:

Bossy Pants by Tina Fey
Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
Growing Older – Joan Dye Gussow
Supergods by Grant Morrison
Seven Deadly Sins by Corey Taylor
Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin
One Day I Will Write About Thing Place by Binyavanga Wainaina

Best non-fiction of 2011:

In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (x2)
Chocolate Wars – Deborah Cadbury
Ghost on the Throne by James Romm
I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish
How To Write A Sentence (and How To Read One) by Stanley Fish
Knit the City – Deadly Knitshade
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Kinglake-350 by Adrian Hyland
SUM: Tales From The Afterlife by David Eagleman
Blood, Bones, & Butter – Gabrielle Hamilton

Guilty pleasure of 2011:

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen
HP Lovecraft Goes to the Movies by H.P. Lovecraft
Bertie Plays the Blues by Alexander McCall Smith
One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire
All the Lives He Led by Frederick Pohl
Daughter of Smoke And Bone by LainiTaylor
There but for the – Ali Smith
An Uncertain Place – Fred Vargas
*Romance Novels
**I never feel guilty for what I read (x3)

Best Character:  Martha Dodd in In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

Jake Epping from 11.22.63 by Stephen King
Buster Fang from The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Sidney Griffiths in Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyen
The Hangman in The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Potzsch
Charles Neumann in Machine Man by Max Barry
Eli Sisters in The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (x2) Dr. Annick Swenson in State of Wonder by Ann Patchett Tochtli inDown The Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villabolos
Jennifer White in Turn of Mind by Alice La Plante

Best Opening Line:

“Leticia found that if she drew the dining room curtain slightly further than was normally respectable, and moved two potted fuchsias from the drawing room to the windowsill, the luminous blood stain on the sky was actually rather well hidden” – Magnus Anderson, “Another Abyss”, Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse

“Many years ago there lived a man called Laurids Madsen, who went up to heaven and came back down again, thanks to his boots.” From We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen

“When she woke, she was red.” From When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

“I am dead, but it’s not so bad.” Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

“It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.” The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Most surprising book of the year:

Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch
Plugged by Eoin Colfer
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyen
Bossypants by Tina Fey
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (x2)
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
Savage City by Sophia McDougall
The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
The Foxes Come at Night by Cees Nooteboom

Book you’d love to re-read right now:

The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes
The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
The Marriage Plot –  Jeffrey Euginides
The Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill
A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked in by Magnus Mills
The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney
From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjon
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
My Dear I Wanted To Tell You by Louisa Young

Best Book Title 2011:
Open City by Teju Cole (for its reference to the book)
I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive by Steve Earle
The Hero Always Wins – Robert Eaton
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
The Leftovers — Tom Perotta
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock
Swamplandia by Karen Russell
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
Blow on A Dead Man’s Embers by Mari Strachan
The Sisters Brothers – Patrick DeWitt

Best book cover 2011:

The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes
A Decline in Prophets by Sulari Gentill
We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
11/22/63 by Stephen King
A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In by Magnus Mills
The Night Circus by Erin Morgernstern
The Leftovers — Tom Perotta
Visions of England by Roy Strong
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
The Sisters Brothers – Patrick DeWitt

Best overall book of 2011:

The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes
The After Party by Leo Benedictus
The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier
Other People’s Money by Justin Cartwright
My Two Worlds by Sergio Chejfac
The Brotherhood by Y.A. Erskine
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (x2)

Get voting… 

The International Readers Awards Voting Form 2011 (doc)

The International Readers Awards Voting Form 2011 (rft)