Book'em? Dunno.

Most of you know that I have this terrible habit of checking email before I am even vertical. Usually, I check work news first, however this morning, I wanted to peruse through the list of International finalists for the Man Booker Prize. A list of thirteen was announced for this bi-annual award. To my surprise upon checking the news, our baker's dozen became a mathematical dozen due to John le Carre's withdrawal from the list. His statement's reasoning: he does not compete.

Respect the artist. Though I have only been following the MB prize for a little over ten years, I have no recollection of an author's withdrawal. Literary agents and writers with much more experience than me will be analyzing this statement in detail today. The Man Booker Chair, Rick Gekoski is leaving him on the finalist list.

There are a host of items where you will find me pushing myself to be better or stronger, but I am not a competitive writer. This news sound bite has me asking the question: do you compete and if so, for what end?