The book blogging world abounds with tempting book challenges, some of ambitious proportions, and others rather more modest. John Mutford′s Annual Canadian Book Challenge falls nicely into the middle ground – why, how completely Canadian! 😉
It′s exceedingly simple. In the year stretching from Canada Day – July 1 – to the eve of the following Canada Day – June 30 – read and post/link a review of 13 (or more) Canadian books.
This will be my 4th year participating, and I must say that it is an immensely enjoyable challenge, having put me on high alert for Canadian content in everything I read (villainous cousin Walter from D.E. Stevenson′s The House on the Cliff, I′m thinking of you, though I didn’t include the book in the challenge as the connection was rather too tenuous) and leading me to ever-more-obscure Canadian B-list books (such as The Last Canadian, a recent superb example of why this thing is truly a “reading challenge”) and even some much more recent things (looking forward to Neil Smith′s freshly published Boo, winging its way to me via my local indie bookstore as I type this).
What constitutes a Canadian book is generously broadminded – no need to read the collected works of Pierre Berton to qualify(though of course there′s no reason why one couldn’t – hmmm – now there′s an idea for an ambitious reading challenge) and you’re sure to find some surprises along the way.
Check it out:
The 9th Annual Canadian Book Challenge
And please do join us.
Leaves & Pages 
I don’t think I will be able to read and review 13 Canadian novels – but I do like Canadian fiction and I will certainly look out for more. Coincidently a few days ago I finished a wonderful novel by Canadian author Mary Lawson – my review will be up tomorrow.
I tend to read without considering the sex/ethnicity/official-home-country of writers, so this challenge has been very eye-opening for me in that I pay more attention to my own country’s literary heritage and contemporary writers. Lots of surprises, some “aha!” moments. Interested in your Mary Lawson review – have not yet read any of her work, though I do have Crow Lake on the TBR pile. (And I just want to say I do so enjoy reading your reviews, Ali. Thanks for posting so dependably and giving so much thought to your reviews. Greatly appreciated.)
That’s a lovely thing to say, so thank you.