QUILLBLOG

Canada Reads, Day 1: nobody voted off yet

After the first day of CBC Radio’s Canada Reads program, all five books – Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis, Children of My Heart by Gabrielle Roy, Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor, The Song of Kahunsha by Anosh Irani, and Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill – remain in contention. Host Bill Richardson decided to let the debate go on another day before asking that the panelists – Steven Page, Denise Bombardier, Jim Cuddy, Donna Morrissey, and John K. Samson – vote the first title out.

This year, Richardson will be writing a running “colour commentary” in the form of a blog. (Read it here.) The first entry was actually written the night before the debates, and is mostly about Richardson’s state of mind only hours before they were to begin. Some of Richardson’s digressions fall under the heading of Too Much Information: “I am writing this in bed, propped up on several over-stuffed pillows, my laptop atop my lap, broadcasting mercy knows what deleterious waves in the direction of my generative organs (fat lot of good they’ve done me, anyway).” But he does make one, perhaps unintentionally revealing comment about this year’s list of books.

[Novels by Mordecai Richler have] twice been shot down in the early rounds of the game. Humour or satire has never fared well in Canada Reads, a lesson this year’s All Stars must have taken to heart. None of this year’s titles is, first and foremost, funny.

At least not “deleterious waves in the direction of my generative organs” funny, anyway.

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