Items of interest
CBC's canada reads 2013 picksExplore some of the best Canadian Lit along with the whole country! Canada Reads has 5 Canadian celebrities advocating that their book choice be the number one for Canada to read this year. A huge list from each region is narrowed to 10 books, then 5, and finally the televised Book Talks and debates begin.
This year's winner was February, by Lisa Moore. KIRBC.comKeepin' It Real Book Club was born during my year at Queen's. The students there wanted to be able to talk about the merits of books we wanted to read, rather than were assigned to read.
One member's blog became a hugely popular website for its literary reviews and Book Club notes and videos. Publishing houses now provide her with pre-release books among other perks! She is living the dream, working for a publishing press and celebrating literature that speaks to her. Check it out for a great place to start creating a Must Read list! |
goodreads.comHave you ever thought about how great it would be to have some way of tracking your reading, exploring your next reading options, and reviewing books you've loved and hated?
Goodreads.com is an incredible site. Signing up is easy. you can create virtual bookshelfs - maybe just one for "to-read" and one for "currently reading" and one for "read" - or maybe you want one for "Canadian" and one for "vampire fic" and one for "dystopia writing"? It is all up to you. Find people you know in real life and follow their reading recommendations; find new people through the site with similar reading interests; join any one of the hundreds of virtual book clubs that can even include the authors themselves. Several publishing companies also host book clubs through Goodreads, including wonderful Canadian publishing companies like House of Anansi Press, and the CBC Reading group. And of course, our class now has a Goodreads book club! Keep track of your reading and recommend books to the rest of the group, after getting a Goodreads account. The dusty bookcaseThe Dusty Bookcase is a blog that tries to unearth information and texts of little-known Canadian authors - hence, the dust.
Blogger and writer Brian Busy manages to create fascinating profiles of writers who were well known in their own day, but have managed to evade attention ever since. He includes links to all resources he finds. It is a treasure trove for a literary detective to sift through! He also weighs in on current Canadian literary topics. What will you find on the dusty bookcase? |
cover Controversy: anne of Green Gables
Because Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic Canadian tale of the skinny red-headed heroine Anne of Green Gables has been in the public domain since 1993, anyone can publish it without permission of the original copyright holder. This was the latest "print on demand" edition featured on Amazon.com.
Why create a cover so at odds with the descriptions and traditional depictions of Anne Shirley? Is it a scheme to avoid paying the licensing fees for a cover with the typical likeness of Anne? Or is it a blatant attempt to increase sales of this version of the book by using a sexualized iamge?
In The Toronto Star, Greg Quill pointed out the disparities, writing,
"Remember when Anne of Green Gables leaned back on the barnyard fence, ran a hand through her shimmering blond hair and tossed off a sexy pout? You don’t?
Then join dozens of other outraged readers of the 1908 Canadian classic who have let Amazon.com know that the most recent edition of L.M. Montgomery’s coming-of-age text got it all wrong in the cover art department."
Several hundred did, and this cover has since been removed from Amazon.com. However, other writers, namely, Brian Busby of The Dusty Bookcase, points out that some of the outrage may stem from the fact that readers and the public do not want to face the fact that by the end of the series, our plucky, outspoken, little heroine grows up and becomes a college graduate, wife, and mother. Where do you stand?
Why create a cover so at odds with the descriptions and traditional depictions of Anne Shirley? Is it a scheme to avoid paying the licensing fees for a cover with the typical likeness of Anne? Or is it a blatant attempt to increase sales of this version of the book by using a sexualized iamge?
In The Toronto Star, Greg Quill pointed out the disparities, writing,
"Remember when Anne of Green Gables leaned back on the barnyard fence, ran a hand through her shimmering blond hair and tossed off a sexy pout? You don’t?
Then join dozens of other outraged readers of the 1908 Canadian classic who have let Amazon.com know that the most recent edition of L.M. Montgomery’s coming-of-age text got it all wrong in the cover art department."
Several hundred did, and this cover has since been removed from Amazon.com. However, other writers, namely, Brian Busby of The Dusty Bookcase, points out that some of the outrage may stem from the fact that readers and the public do not want to face the fact that by the end of the series, our plucky, outspoken, little heroine grows up and becomes a college graduate, wife, and mother. Where do you stand?