There are too many prizes. Hardly a week passes without someone being named as best something by somebody, usually with a sponsor hanging on to the coat-tails of the winner in the hope of gaining some reflected glory.

But the impact fades quickly - sometimes in the moment it takes to turn the page of a newspaper. Who can honestly recall the winner last year of the Vic's Vac Spares Best Verse Memoir by a Former Policeman prize?

Yet, like sports fans, we instinctively know the contests that matter. For all the hoopla over the frocks, an Oscar still carries weight. It's the same with an Emmy, a Bafta, a Tony or, as we saw this week, the Nationwide Mercury Music Prize (and congratulations to Elbow, by the way. No, you haven't turned to the wrong bit of the paper, Guy Garvey's lyrics on The Seldom Seen Kid are profound and poetic - proper writing, in other words.)

So, the announcement of the Man Booker Prize shortlist this week carried its usual genuine frisson of excitement in the world of books. Nor is this purely a commercial matter. Those shortlisted and the eventual winner will enjoy a hike in sales, but not in quantities likely to trouble J.K. Rowling's accountants.

Happily, in its 40th year, this is still an award where the issue of quality towers above all else. How often does a longlisted bookies' favourite fail to make the shortlist, or the

apparent leader going into the home straight not make it past the line first on the big night? In 2005, John Banville's The Sea pipped starry offerings from Julian Barnes and Kazuo Ishiguro while, in 2002, Yann Martel's Life of Pi - now approaching modern classic status - was languishing in the considerable shadow of William Trevor until the final judgment.

Naturally, most of the headlines about the 2008 shortlist concentrated on the omission of Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence but, controversial or not, we cannot help but think that this was a healthy sign.

Not because we have anything against Sir Salman - his words adorned this section last week and we ran an exclusive extract from The Enchantress of Florence back in April - but because leaving him off the shortlist while at the same time naming two debut novelists, showed that the Booker is not blinded by bright lights or seduced by past achievements And that must surely be a good thing.

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