The National Book Awards: A Post Mortem

National Book Awards post-mortem

Is anyone really surprised when a committee comes up with a camel?  Choosing the best book published is a difficult, maybe even a silly endeavor--best in what way?  Sometimes there is an undoubted winner.  But consider, even in the few books I have read this, I would be hard-pressed to choose the best.  And these poor judges are faced with the task of deciding from a great many such.  It's no wonder we spend so much time pillorying them.

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