Last year, I was a new voter. Despite the controversies surrounding certain works on the shortlist and how they got there, I dutifully read, watched, listened to or otherwise researched as many of the finalists as possible in every category. I posted my thoughts here on all the literary, literary-related and dramatic categories.
This year, I feel no such urge to be quite so obsessively even-handed. I have no intention of wasting my time on works whose presence on the shortlist is the consequence of a group of very sad people to disrupt a time-honoured event by slating material whose only purpose is to mock or disparage authors or other fans. This means, for instance, that I will be reading very little from the Related Works category which is filled with spiteful drek and other pointless entries.
Nor do I feel obligated to read, watch or listen all the way to the end anything that is not, in my opinion, work of a calibre that merits an award. I did enough of that last year, bailing out on only one thing that I found quite unreadable. Of course, if something interests me even if it's not work that deserves to be describes as one of the best pieces of work in its category released this year, I will read to the end. But I don't feel obligated to.
And now, back to reading.