jmtd → log → Letter to Starburst magazine

I recently read a few issues of Starburst magazine which is good fun, but a brief mention of the Man Booker prize in issue 404 stoked the fires of the age old SF-versus-mainstream argument, so I wrote the following:

Dear Starburst,

I found it perplexing that, in "Brave New Words", issue 404, whilst covering the Man-Booker shortlist, Ed Fortune tried to simultaneously argue that genre readers "read broadly" yet only Howard Jacobson's novel would be of passable interest. Asides from the obvious logical contradiction he is sadly overlooking David Mitchell's critically lauded and undisputably SF&F novel "The Bone Clocks", which it turned out was also overlooked by the short-listers. Still, Jacobson's novel made it, meaning SF&F represents 16% of the shortlist. Not too bad I'd say.

All the best & keep up the good work!

As it happens I'm currently struggling through "J". I'm at around the half-way mark.