John Mutford's Canadian Reading Challenge
Over at John Mutford's blog, back in October, he posted a Canadian Reading Challenge, in which he asked people to read 13 Canadian books before Canada Day 2008 (one for each province or territory, though there was no requirement to get one from each region). I don't know how I missed this post, except to make the thoroughly lame excuse that it was a busy teaching time (but what isn't?).
Anyhoo, it turns out that I've finished the challenge just in 2008, so in blogged order here are the eighteen Canadian books I've read since January 1, of which fully 16 are by writers who live in BC now or who lived here while writing them:
1. Douglas Coupland, JPod
2. Sarah de Leeuw, Unmarked
3. Harold Rhenisch, Tom Thomson's Shack
4. Tim Bowling, The Lost Coast
5. Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach
6. Jan Zwicky, Songs for Relinquishing the Earth
7. Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Upside of Down
8. Robert Bringhurst, Pieces of Map, Pieces of Music
9. David R. Boyd, ed., Northern Wild
10. Gillian Wigmore, Soft Geography
11. Theresa Kishkan, Phantom Limb
12. Bruce Braun, The Intemperate Rainforest
13. Bus Griffiths, Now You're Logging
14. Donna Kane, Erratic
15. Donna Kane, Somewhere, A Fire
16. Tim Lilburn, Living In The World As If It Were Home
17. Ron Chudley, Stolen
18. Theresa Kishkan, Red Laredo Boots
Thanks for the chance to dig through the memory banks, and to reflect on everyone else's choices. I'll borrow heavily from your commenters, John, and gentle reader, if you got here from John's site, I hope you choose some of these BC writers!
Anyhoo, it turns out that I've finished the challenge just in 2008, so in blogged order here are the eighteen Canadian books I've read since January 1, of which fully 16 are by writers who live in BC now or who lived here while writing them:
1. Douglas Coupland, JPod
2. Sarah de Leeuw, Unmarked
3. Harold Rhenisch, Tom Thomson's Shack
4. Tim Bowling, The Lost Coast
5. Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach
6. Jan Zwicky, Songs for Relinquishing the Earth
7. Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Upside of Down
8. Robert Bringhurst, Pieces of Map, Pieces of Music
9. David R. Boyd, ed., Northern Wild
10. Gillian Wigmore, Soft Geography
11. Theresa Kishkan, Phantom Limb
12. Bruce Braun, The Intemperate Rainforest
13. Bus Griffiths, Now You're Logging
14. Donna Kane, Erratic
15. Donna Kane, Somewhere, A Fire
16. Tim Lilburn, Living In The World As If It Were Home
17. Ron Chudley, Stolen
18. Theresa Kishkan, Red Laredo Boots
Thanks for the chance to dig through the memory banks, and to reflect on everyone else's choices. I'll borrow heavily from your commenters, John, and gentle reader, if you got here from John's site, I hope you choose some of these BC writers!
Comments
I haven't read any from your current list, though I have read other books by Coupland and Lilburn. Thanks for the introduction to plenty of unfamiliar (to me) authors.
Keith: JPod was good, but my two fiction faves are Life After God (though not many Couplandites would agree with my assessment there) and Microserfs. To really get him, though, you need to read one of the Souvenir of Canada volumes, maybe see the documentary of the same title. The larger format books are terrific (including the very moving Terry, about Canadian icon Terry Fox).
I'd heard good things about Microserfs from another Coupland fan too so maybe I should check that out next.
still, this looks like an amazing list. i'll definitely return to it once i get time to read whatever in the world i want whenever i want to.