Nov 25 2008
All right, Canadians - get reading!
Canadians, sharpen your minds and exercise your eyes, and get ready to read! The great national reading program — Canada Reads — is off and running!
This is a national book challenge where five celebrity panelists choose five Canadian books that people all over the country are urged to read. The books and participants are announced before Christmas, and the following February or March, the panelists argue the merits of their chosen book and critique the other books over a full week. Each day, starting Tuesday, one book is voted off the list by the panelists, and a winner is chosen on the Friday.
The history of the challenge is available on Wikipedia, for history buffs. I’ve heard all seven broadcasts over the years, from when they first started in 2001 until this past February (2008). The challenge started fairly small, as a program on the national morning show on CBC Radio One, but has expanded since then to the Sirius Satellite 137 CBC channel, some TV broadcasts, and most recently into podcasts.
I don’t always get the chance to read the chosen books ahead of time (though they’re announced this early so as many Canadians as possible can do so), but I love hearing what the books are about, and how they’re viewed by the panelists. It’s like a week-long book review.
I’m already excited about it, because today, on CBC’s “Q” Radio program, the panelists and books for 2009 were announced:
- Panelist – Nicholas Campbell; Book – The Outlander by Gil Adamson
- Panelist – Jen Sookfong Lee; Book – Fruit by Brian Francis
- Panelist – Sarah Slean; Book – Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards
- Panelist – Anne-Marie Whithenshaw; Book – The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay
- Panelist – Avi Lewis; Book – The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
It’s going to be lots of fun, the week of March 2-6, 2009. If you order all five books through the CBC Shop, you’ll get a free tote bag along with them. Let’s start reading!
