Canada Reads – Day 4

Today I morn the loss of Michel Tremblay’s novel The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant from the possible contenders in Canada Reads 2009.  I know that I said I mentioned in the comments of yesterdays post but since then I’ve read more of the book and I’m loving the characters in the novel just as I love many of the other characters Tremblay has introduced me to.  The final decision came down to Sarah Slean (how could you Sarah?) because a tie needed to be broken between Tremblay’s book and The Outsider by Gil Andamson.

I’m going to start today with a bit of a rant, so excuse me for a moment while I get this off my chest.  We’re getting near the end of Canada Reads 2009, only one day to go, and Jian Ghomese is still asking everyone, still in the running, to summarise their novel.  I think the people that are listening have heard enough about these book and do not need to be told again what the novels still in contention are about.  I really hope that last two don’t have to do this again tomorrow.

The big question today was what book brought you something new, something you didn’t know or a new experience?  Great question posed by a great host.  It seemed that many learned something, not surprisingly from Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes.  I would have to say that I learned the most from this novel as well, I had no idea that Freetown in Sierra Leone was founded by free slaves that got to Nova Scotia/New Brunswick from the USA.  I found the final chapters of that novel to be the most interesting.

Others answered the question by saying they learned a lot about Sarnia from Fruit.  But then again who knows all that much about Sarnia to begin with?  Ghomese’s question caused everyone to do some thinking and really got me thinking.  I didn’t really think that learning something new is all that important when suggesting a novel to a nation.  I tend to think that the more someone knows about a particular subject the more they would get out of a novel dealing with that subject.  I think I would have got more out of The Book of Negroes if I knew more about it before reading it.

I’m now curious to see if The Outlander will come back from it’s near defeat today.  I’m really interested to see what happens tomorrow and which two books will be the ones duking it out for the coveted title.  Now this probably isn’t the best reason for not wanting a book to win but I don’t want The Book of Negroes to win because it’s already got so much attention, I’d like to see something else get the spot light introducing Canadians to a new book.

Advertisement

Booking Through Thursday #25

We’ve all seen the lists, we’ve all thought, “I should really read that someday,” but for all of us, there are still books on “The List” that we haven’t actually gotten around to reading. Even though we know they’re fabulous. Even though we know that we’ll like them. Or that we’ll learn from them. Or just that they’re supposed to be worthy. We just … haven’t gotten around to them yet.

What’s the best book that YOU haven’t read yet?

This is an interesting question because I know there are several great books that I haven’t read yet.  But I’m catching up on the books rather quickly these days so the question becomes more difficult.  If the narrowing of “the list” isn’t enough I am the kind of person that selects my movies the same way I select my books, I chose by the way I’m feeling the day it’s time to select the next book.  There are books that I want to read but just have never been able to get “into the mood”.

I guess I’m being a little to ambiguous for the Booking Through Thursday crowd.  I guess if I had to select a book or two I would have to start with a couple of classics that I’ve always wanted to read but haven’t gotten around to it yet for a couple of reasons.  The first one, because it seems rather intimidating, James Joyce’s Ulysses.  The primary reason it’s on “the list” is because it’s “the greatest book every written” and it’s always been something that’s always been eating at me because I haven’t read it yet.  I haven’t yet purchased the book either.  I also really want to read Moby Dick by Herman Melville this just seems like one of those books I should read.

I think I’ll leave the list at that for the time being.  There are just so many that I could list that I would be great books that I’ve yet to read.  Including some more modern novels.  I’m interested to see what everyone else has to say on this subject.  Until next time happy reading.