Market forces and media pressures …have made a competitive sport out of literary awards, and the run-up to the Booker smells more of a soccer game than a salon . Photo: AP The literary award as a competitive sport: The judges for the Man Booker Prize (from left) John Mullan, Lucasta Miller, Chair James Naughtie, Sue Perkins, and Michael Prodger with the shortlisted novels. There will be five exhausted writers in search of refuge on October 6, 2009. A sixth will be the ecstatic, just-crowned winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize. The practice of releasing a Booker longlist of 12 to 13 books began in 2001; after a month, it is winnowed down to a shortlist. The six shortlisted authors have another month to wait before the prize is announced. This month passes in a maelstrom of speculation, betting and controversies, taut with delight and terror. Although, as 1996 winner Graham Swift said, “Prizes don’t make writers ... and writers don’t write to win prizes,” the pressure is monstrous. T...