Do You Watch Award Shows?

I was flipping channels last night and happened to see the Golden Globes were on. It occurred to me that it was the start of TV and Movie award season. I’ve never been one to sit down and watch the award shows. I tried a couple of times in college — and I’ll admit I enjoy watching a little of the red carpet to see all the various outfits people wear. But the shows themselves…I find them somewhat boring.

Part of the problem is that most of the time I haven’t seen whatever it is that won. (For example, the two minutes of the Golden Globes I saw they were giving an award to Breaking Bad. Never saw it. I’ve heard lots about it, but never managed to see an episode. So ok, yay, they got a Golden Glob — but it means very little to me.)

It got me thinking – because it’s submission time for various book awards right now, too. And as a reader I find I don’t care all that much about books that won awards. If it’s a good book, I’m happy — award winner or not. Are the awards for the readers (do they somehow indicate superior quality?) or are they, like the TV and movie awards seem to be, more for the author and publisher.

(I guess there’s one caveat to not caring overly about book awards. I grew up reading Newbery and Caldecott award winners. And those remain some of my favorites to this day. So for those awards, yeah, it matters. But it seems like there are a ton of book awards out there these days as well.)

So I’ll leave you with two questions – please chime in!

1) Are you looking forward to the TV/Movie awards season? (If so – why? What do you love about them?)

2) Do you give any preference to award winning books when you’re looking for the next thing to read?