Vote for “the best of Booker”

As literary prizes come, they don’t get much more prestigious than the Man Booker prize for fiction. And it’s only once every quarter century or so that the public at large is invited to participate in picking a winner.

So don’t miss your opportunity. This year, 2008, marks the 40th anniversary of the award.

To celebrate, the world’s readers are being asked to vote for the best overall novel to have won since the prize was first awarded on April 22, 1969.

The last time readers were issued such an invitation was in 1993 to celebrate the prize’s 25th anniversary. That year, the winner was Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children” (the 1981 winner.)

The public will choose from a shortlist of six titles to be announced in May. Voting will take place on the Man Booker website (http://www.themanbookerprize.com).

Bookies in London are already taking bets on the nominees. So far, odds are favoring Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi,” Michael Ondaatje’s “The English Patient,” Barry Unsworth’s “Sacred Hunger,” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Blind Assassin.”

Don’t miss your chance to let your voice be heard!