In anticipation of tonight’s Booker announcement, we’ve asked some of your favourite bloggers to give us their predictions for the big prize. We also asked them for the books they think should win, but never made the shortlist. With such a mix of opinions it makes me think it would be great to get them all on a panel to fight it out…

‘I am hoping that Carol Birch will win of the short listed authors, a brilliant story with wonderful prose, a perfect combination of literary and readability. I was hoping Jane Harris would win this year with Gillespie and I so now I am putting all my hopes into another wonderful Victorian novel.’

Simon Savidge of Savidge Reads, http://savidgereads.wordpress.com/

'I was thrilled when I saw Patrick DeWitt's The Sister Brothers had made the list because it felt to me like the kind of book that wouldn't normally make the list - and the kind of book that would really be well served by being on the list. I haven't been as happy with a Booker choice since Magnus Mills' The Restraint of Beasts. Not that I think it will win. I think this is Julian Barnes' year (and that's fine with me too).'

Peter Wild, Editor, Bookmunch, http://bookmunch.wordpress.com/

This year has got to be Julian Barnes’ year, surely. He’s due the Scorsese award for ‘This year you were great but not your greatest but we thought it high time your overall greatness was honoured so here’s an award for something that’s great but not the best thing you’ve done’ I reckon. I don’t know if Teju Cole was eligible for the Booker but, stone me, his debut Open City was a powerhouse knockout piece of amazingness.

Nikesh Shukla, author of Coconut Unlimited and Booktrust web editor

I haven't read a single book on the shortlist. I did start Pigeon English but wasn't keen so I gave up. The two books that surprised me by their absence were Annabel by Kathleen Winter and Gillespie & I by Jane Harris, both as good, if not better, than previous Booker winners. I am sure they would have been very popular winners with readers.

Scott Pack of Me And My Big Mouth, http://meandmybigmouth.typepad.com/scottpack/

‘Carol Birch's Jamrach's Menagerie ticks all the boxes for a Booker winner and I think it will edge out Julian Barnes for the crown. If I were judging, I'd have no hesitation to give the prize to Open City by Teju Cole, a glaring - though unsurprising given the judges' comments about books 'zipping along' - omission from the shortlist; with honourable mentions for AL Kennedy's The Blue Book and Hari Kunzru's Gods Without Men.’

Stuart Evers, author of Ten Stories About Smoking

‘Julian Barnes seems the right and obvious choice, so... [comedy beat] I predict that the panel will choose Pigeon English: not a bad book, but not a great one.

My own choice for the prize of all the eligible books I've read would be any of the following: Richard Beard's Lazarus is Dead; John Burnside's A Summer of Drowning; or - to stop this from seeming like a Random House love-in - Lars Iyer's Spurious; Adam Mars-Jones' Cedilla; or Nicholas Royle's Quilt. All these books strike out into new territory and are both rewarding and pleasurable to read.’

John Self of The Asylum, http://theasylum.wordpress.com/

‘I know I wasn't alone in lamenting the exclusion of Edward St Aubyn's final book in the Melrose saga, At Last, from the list and I was also very sad not to see John Burnside there for his marvellously atmospheric, A Summer of Drowning. It can surely only be a matter of time.

With Barry and Hollinghurst falling at the first hurdle I wonder whether Barnes stands a good chance for a lifetime achievement style award. Of the three shortlisted titles I've read my favourite is Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues. The story of an Afro-German jazz trumpeter in wartime Europe provides not just an intriguing viewpoint on well known history, but some pitch-perfect dialogue and a really enjoyable narrative voice.’

Thanks to everyone for their contributions and let’s hope those who picked The Sense of an Ending are right!

As the Booker seems to be such a contentious issue, we’d like you to comment below, telling us which book you think should have won a Booker and why. The winner will be picked tomorrow and will win a copy of The Sense of an Ending and also a special anniversary edition of Catch 22.