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What is this blog about?

This is a blog about my crazy idea to read 24 Canadian Literary classics in 12 months. The goal is to explore the Prairies with Margaret Laurence, get to know small town Ontario with Alice Munro, return to my roots with Antonine Maillet and venture into the far North with Pierre Berton. By reading the works of Canadian authors from each province and territory, I hope to discover my beautiful country one book at a time.

Where did the idea come from?

On May 30, 2009, I read an article in the National Post called “Northern Writes”. It was accompanied by an illustration of a map of Canada with the heads of Canadian writers hovering over each province and territory. Shamefully, I only recognized a few of the names on the map. This made me realize that I had read many books but never Canadian books. I have never read a Margaret Atwood novel nor have I ever read Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Suddenly, the idea came to me like a wave from the Bay of Fundy:  I would read the great Canadian classics by authors from each province and territory. Of course, I would set a deadline for this project because after all, I am a procrastinator extraordinaire.

How did you select the number of books to read?

Initially, I thought about taking the writers map of Canada that I first saw in the National Post article and simply read a book by each of the featured authors from East to West to North. That would have meant reading 17 books. Then I realized the map did not have any Francophone authors. As a Francophone born and raised in New Brunswick (but currently residing in Ottawa, Ontario), it is important to me to discover great Canadian classics in both languages.

For whatever reason, perhaps simply my geekness (wait…is that a word?), I decided to visit the Statistics Canada website and note the population of each province and territory. Then it occurred to me that I should use these numbers to come up with a system to calculate how many books I should read from each province and territory. So I doodled behind my copy of the writers map of Canada until I came up with this:

Any province or territory with a population of:

• less than 1 million people = 1 book
• between 1 million and 5 million people = 2 books
• between 5 million and 10 million people = 3 books
• 10 million people or more = 4 books

However, I felt it was my duty to read more than one book from my native province of New Brunswick so I decided to make an exception to the rule and read two books from that province: one in French and one in English. I will also make another exception to the rule and read a book called Trente arpents (Thirty Acres) by Ringuet, a Quebec author, who has the same last name as mine (well, mine has an extra T and E but close enough).

How did you select the authors and the books?

This was the hard part. After numerous Google searches, I came up with a list of authors who have penned a Canadian literary classic according to various sources such as:

• Canadian literature university courses;
• Literary Review of Canada’s List of 100 Most Important Canadian Books;
• CBC archives online;
• Ottawa Public Library; and
• Various lists from CanLit websites and blogs.

Then, I set about associating them with a province or territory. I have to say that an unusual amount of successful writers were born in Ontario so I was forced to make some cuts in order to respect my book limit. Without a doubt, I will come back to these authors once this project is completed. Meanwhile, I struggled to find authors from Northwest Territories and Nunavut. I thought about taking the easy route and reading books about both Territories by Farley Mowat. However, I didn’t feel that that would be respectful of the North to pick an author who was not born and raised there to represent them. So, I contacted the Government of Nunavut and Government of the Northwest Territories and asked they provide me with some suggestions.

With respect to the book selection in general, my goal was to find a book that could best represent the author whether it be because it won a particular award or perhaps because it was the book that put them on the literary map. Having devoted many hours searching online, at the Book Market and at the library, I am confident that my book selection reflects a Canada many of us do not know but can’t wait to discover.