Read of the Town: The Luminaries

It's not a guarantee that every book I mention in my "Read of the Town" posts will I actually buy and read, but I feel they must be mentioned because it's what everyone is talking about. This go around this book definitely falls into this category because it has won the Man Booker Prize. Let me interject that I also learn new things as I make these discoveries. If you don't already know the Man Booker Prize is conducted every year and comprised of UK authors primarily. They have an International Man Booker Prize where any English written book or at least translated to English book can become a finalist, and his happens every two years. The next prize will be given out in 2015. Below is an image of the shortlist for this years Man Booker Prize:

As you can see from the above image, it shows the reason why, unfortunately, I probably won't be purchasing or reading this book. I know it's not fair to judge a book by it's cover, in more cases than not, I tend to judge a book by its weight! After spraining my wrist carrying around and reading Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell I made the decision never to put myself through that again. This includes the last 3 books of Harry Potter which, when I get around to reading them, will be from the comfort of my bed at home! I do have books like 1Q84 and Atlas Shrugged on my TBR list but they are soft cover and like Harry Potter I will most likely only read them when I'm home.

Not a good enough reason to not buy a book I know but perhaps I will. Who knows. I hate to discount a book based on its weight. And NO I do not now nor will I ever own an e-reader so that option is out of the question for me! I will say the cover is rather interesting:

Have you read this book yet? From what I can tell it only became available to the general public September 5th of this year, and being that it's the longest book to ever win this prize (850+ pages to be exact) I suppose more than one month is plenty of time to have read the book? What did you think? And if you read the actual book as opposed to a digital copy, is it worth the nearly 3lbs weight?

Summary:

It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.