Madam, - There has been some controversy in your pages about the 50 novels shortlisted for A Novel Choice, the James Joyce Centre and Irish Times readers' poll to select the greatest Irish novels. If contention surrounds A Novel Choice, then one of its main aims has been achieved - to turn reading, an essentially private experience, into an event focusing on collective participation and debate.
Readers may vote by post to the address below or by logging on to the website www.jamesjoyce.ie. Voters are encouraged to comment on the inclusion, or exclusion, of any book/author on the list. These comments will all be noted and considered in the article analysing the results of A Novel Choice and in the accompanying lecture series on the Irish novel. - Yours, etc.,
LISAJANE DUFFY, James Joyce Centre, 35 North Great George's Street, Dublin 1.