Book people.

Today, after laundry and grocery shopping, I got to sit in on the panel discussion with the judges of this year's Man Booker International Prize. A bunch of us Masseyites got to go, for no other reason than the College hosted the judges for the three days they were in town whittling down their long list of authors to a short list of 15 worthies. Two of the three Canadians on the short list of 15 were in the audience (Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, though not Alice Munro), as was historian Michael Bliss and other Toronto fancy types and literature people. The discussion was generally interesting, and SM---who is rather taller than I thought he was---kept me entertained as we waited for the thing to start.

The reception afterward was in the Massey common room, and so of course I had to go to that. I chatted with some of my favourites, including CG. (That guy gets more interesting by the day, I think.) M2.0 was all excited about getting Ondaatje and another author in the room to autograph copies of their books. A glass and a half of wine later I managed to tear myself away so I could go home and put away my laundry. After a very late dinner FN and I watched "The Painted Veil," which was good, fine. It was then after 2am! Which means I didn't grade anything today yet. Crap! I think perhaps I should do one or two before bed.