Didn't like the Joshua Ferris at all; good idea - the Internet, stalkers, dentists, New York… but badly written, extremely annoying, juvenile.

Absolutely loving the Ali Smith so far. Sums up why I read all six Booker finalists every year if I can - highly original, different, clever. Makes it all worthwhile.

I shall update this thread as I complete consuming more novels!

Finished How To Be Both - brilliant. It will take a superb novel to beat the Ali Smith masterpiece.

Howard Jacobson - J - not bad, I did read it cover to cover, sort of 1984 meets The Hobbit. OK, not as good as the Ali Smith though.

Neel Mukerjee - Oh God, why do they, almost every year, pick an obligatory "life in India" novel which rambles on with incomprehensible names and boring detail? I loved The God Of Small Things (1997) and other Indian novels (and winners) like White Tiger. One year my favourite was an Indian novel that came last about life near a nuclear waste type disaster site - Animal's People (even better than McEwan's Chesil Beach that year).

But this one is a novel too far for me. 50 pages in I decided - sorry, bored now.

OK - I've now read all six - not a good year at all; very below par.

My favourite - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Doubt it will win but the best of the bunch.

Second equal - Ali Smith and Howard Jacobson - Ali's is terrific; Howard's not bad at all.

Fourth - Robert Flanagan - very good but one dimensional.

Two total losers - the obligatory "sprawling Indian poverty" one by Neel Mukherjee and the mad dentist on the Internet one by Joshua Ferris.

The reason I've picked Karen above Ali (though Ali is more likely to win, probably deservedly) is that I'm really enjoying We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Funnily enough, a similar but very different idea to How To Be Both.

It's the sixth of the six and whilst I thought Ali Smith's brilliant, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Fowler's which is the only one that is frequently funny and makes me laugh. It reminds me somehow of Vernon God Little which DID win.

I'm still only half way through but really loving it.

OK I've finished the brilliant Fowler book; it probably won't win but it deserves to; it is the reason I read all six finalists every year. There is nearly always at least one novel I would never read otherwise. Ali Smith's book is fabulous and terribly clever but I loved the Fowler book much more.

Winner announced tonight around 10pm.

Complete fuck up by the BBC of the announcement; they really are falling apart, now technically as well as morally.
The winner is not bad but very one dimensional I thought but Hedda picked him!