The Booker of Bookers

2009 will  be the 40th anniversary of the Booker Prize (the first awardee was P.H. Newby's Something to Answer For). To drum up interest in the award, and because the only thing better that a best-of list is a best-of-the-best list, there will be a "Best of the Booker" prize given to one of the 41 former winners. As the Man Booker site notes, this isn't the first time such a prize has been distributed, in 1993 Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children was deemed the best by a panel of judges.

Democracy has swept the world, and what worked 1993 surely won't work for the Web 2.0 generation, so this time, the panel of experts is selecting only the six finalists for the "Best of the Booker" prize. The public will be making the final choice.

ABE.com is holding its very own, early poll. So if you'd like to vote for NYRB's lone Booker winner, head over to its Booker page, and put your support behind J.G. Farrell's Siege of Krishnapur.