OK so in the “About Me” section I admitted I read, but I didn’t really come clean about my extreme voracious reading syndrome. Oh how I adore reading!! As a consequence my second favourite time of year is the CBC Canada Reads debates. (The first being May 15th International Fluevog Day, naturally.)
For those of you who aren’t in the know, Canada Reads is CBC Radio’s annual battle of the books, where five Canadian personalities select the book they think Canadians should read. Each personality selects a book to defend and the books are eliminated one by one until a winner is declared. The debates air on CBC Radio One. This year the contenders were:
Debbie Travis, defending The Birth House by Ami McKay
Ali Velshi, defending The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
Georges Laraque, defending The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou
Lorne Cardinal, defending Unless by Carol Shields
Sara Quin, defending Essex County by Jeff Lemire
OK so here’s where I admit my super nerdiness and my chronic extreme voracious reading syndrome. Each year as soon as the Canada Reads book list comes out I spring into action and order them all from my local library. I try to read as many of the books before the beginning of the debates and then spend the whole week glued to the radio cheering for the book I most enjoyed.
I managed to get all but Essex County from the library before the debates. I read Unless (loved it), The Birth House (liked it), part of The Bone Cage (blech, couldn’t get through it) and am currently working on The Best Laid Plans (love, love, love it thus far). I threw my weight behind Unless by Carol Shields because it is an amazing read and I adore it’s defender Lorne Cardinal (we’re Facebook friends!!).
Unfortunately Unless didn’t win in spite of Lorne’s eloquent defence, and The Best Laid Plans took the contest. I’m about 1/3 of the way through that book and I’m really enjoying it. I’m not sure it’s for everyone, but as a good portion of the Canadian public really enjoys political humour (which totally explains my not-so-secret crush on Rick Mercer…) I think it’s worth your time to give it a go.
Now it’s confession time. I bought something yesterday. I know, I know I’m supposed to be on the GAAD and it was only February 8th and I’d gone and blown the pledge already. In my defense though I wasn’t actually shopping or planning to shop and it wasn’t emotional shopping because I was feeling bad and needed a pick up. It was merely a matter of requiting love.
I have been walking past this particular store for months now and they had a coat in their window that I came to adore with all my heart. This particular store specializes in Aboriginal style clothing and accessories, by which I mean beaded items, moccasins, etc and is VERY expensive, so I lusted in private but never thought it would be mine (much the same feeling as I have about Rick Mercer, and strangely LL Cool J). Well after my fantastic laughs with my old friends yesterday I again walked by the store and thought I’d throw caution to the wind and go inside and see how much it was. (Do you see that red flashing light?? Well I was ignoring it…)
To make an inordinately long story even longer, there was only one (and they only ever ordered one), it was beautiful, it was my size, it fit perfect, it was 50% off (still expensive mind you) and they gave me an extra 10% off it I was attending the convention at the attached hotel (and if by attending they meant walking by from the parking lot to my office then yes I was!).
I decided to give it to myself for my birthday this year which is not until next month so I won’t be wearing it or posting any pictures of it before that time… OK maybe I’ll wear it if it warms up enough to wear it… oh look at that, the forecast calls for 0C on Saturday and +3C on Sunday… again there’s that annoying red flashing light… probably best just to ignore it…
Diary of a Recovering Shoeoholic 