Our latest blog comes from DeLong Book History Book Prize juror, Professor Amadio Arboleda:
During the many years I worked as a publisher I thought the most difficult job was selecting a manuscript from many submissions for publication as a book. When I became a DeLong Book Prize juror the responsibilities seemed somewhat similar but I recognized a crucial difference. We were selecting from books that had already been vetted and published.
Last year, Claire Squires approached me, in a manner of speaking, by e-mail to ask if I would accept to fill an opening among the three jurors for the annual SHARP George A. and Jean S. DeLong Book History Book Prize. She explained that the task of the prize jury would entail reading an estimated 40 or so books, based on the number of entries submitted in the previous year, and deciding on the winning book in time for the annual SHARP conference (last year, Helsinki; this year, Washington). While I was both flattered and intimidated, I was also worried about the number of books to read. My immediate concern was how to effectively shuffle my schedule to squeeze this new task in with several pressing assignments my university had recently given me. Fortunately, my love-of-books seventh sense honed in on the prospect of reading lots of books on various topics and convinced me to send a positive reply to Claire, and so began my experience as a juror in 2010.
The books for the 2010 prize began to trickle in, one or two a week, around the beginning of March. By the end of March, I had five books and no idea of how to go about reading them. None of them were in my own field of Japanese book publishing culture and many covered topics about which I knew little or nothing. Nevertheless, I decided to begin reading because with our school year beginning in mid April I thought I might not find enough time to read the number of books required for one juror. The books for the 2011 prize began arriving earlier but in larger numbers. In both years, I was also worried that taking more time than other jurors to read books outside my own sphere of interest might delay a final decision. However, as I delved into unfamiliar pages I was reminded of my wonderful experience as a definition editor of the American Heritage Dictionary. Each editor had to read a certain number of books in a loosely defined area of their expertise every week to "absorb" information. The Dictionary had arranged with the New York Public Library main branch on Fifth Avenue to allow the definitions editors to request books that would be delivered to our office. I had the good fortune of being paid to read books. I realized that reading the entry books as a juror also could be considered good fortune and felt encouraged.
My reading plans this year ran into an unexpected hurdle in March when Japan was tragically hit by triple punches in the form of the largest earthquake in its recorded history and a monumental tsunami followed by spreading radiation from damaged nuclear power plant reactors. Because of its location on the Pacific coast south of the stricken area, my university suspended operations for several weeks forcing me to delay my schedule.
The most difficult part of the work of a juror for me was judging the books. Although I accepted that the jury had to classify the books according to a set of standards comparable to those of any book prize selection process, making judgments about the outcome of the toil and scholarship embodied in each individual volume was somewhat agonizing. In many instances I wanted to assign similar weights to different books. I found that every one of the books had something special to say and explain in its own unique way. It was clear that more than one book easily could have qualified for the award. As I expressed to Claire in an e-mail after the jury had agreed on the finalist, "although, in the end, only one could be designated as winner I think all of the books deserve a round of applause from the SHARP membership."
Although the work of a juror created some anxieties for me, in the end, it was an unforgettable pleasure to read so many good books and meet so many new ideas.
