- Canada Reads
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Canada Reads Other names Le Combat des livres Running time 30 min. Country Canada Languages English, French Home station CBC Radio One
Première ChaîneTV adaptations CBC Television
CBC Newsworld
Bold TVHosts Jian Ghomeshi
Bill Richardson
Mary Walsh
Hannah Sung
Marie-France Bazzo
Christiane CharetteCreators Peter Kavanagh Air dates since 2002 No. of series 8 (English)
5 (French)No. of episodes 40 (English)
25 (French)Website Canada Reads Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC.
Contents
Overview
During Canada Reads, five personalities champion five different books, each champion extolling the merits of one of the titles. The debate is broadcast over a series of five programs. At the end of each episode, the panelists vote one title out of the competition until only one book remains. This book is then billed as the book that all of Canada should read.
Following the announcement of the winning title, the CBC opens an online forum where readers can discuss the book. The forum's current moderator is Hannah Sung.[1]
Canada Reads was created by CBC Radio producer, Peter Kavanagh during the fall of 2001. Talin Vartanian became Executive Producer in 2002 to 2007. In 2007 the program was an "All Star Edition", a reunion of the winning panelists from the first five years.
Canada Reads was first broadcast on CBC's Radio One in 2002, and has aired annually on radio since then. The third and fourth editions also were broadcast on television, on CBC Newsworld. Broadcast dates were February 16 to February 20, 2004, and February 21 to February 25, 2005, respectively. The seventh edition was also broadcast on Bold TV, broadcasting from February 25 to February 29. Beginning with the third edition, the daily debates could be heard online as well as on Radio One. The fifth edition was broadcast from April 17 to April 21, 2006; the sixth edition aired February 25 to March 2, 2007. The seventh edition of Canada Reads was broadcast on February 25 to February 29, 2008 and for the first time it was available as a podcast.
The books in the running for each edition of Canada Reads are announced several months before the programs are broadcast. Titles must be Canadian fiction, poetry or plays. They are promoted in bookstores, in the hope that the Canada Reads audience will purchase and read them all before the programs air. In some cases, publishers have published special editions of the nominated titles.
The publisher of the winning Canada Reads title donates a portion of sales proceeds from the winning book to a charitable organization working in the field of literacy. Recipients have included Frontier College, the Movement for Canadian Literacy, ABC Life Literacy Canada (formerly ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation) and Laubach Literacy of Canada.
Since 2004, Radio-Canada, the French-language service of CBC, has annually produced a French version of Canada Reads entitled Le Combat des livres ("Battle of the books"). It is broadcast on Première Chaîne.
Both the English and French programs sometimes, but not always, include one personality more commonly associated with the other language community, who champions a translated work. One advocate, Maureen McTeer, appeared on both programs in the same year, championing the same novel in both its original English and translated French editions. Three other novels have also been chosen for both programs, although their English and French versions were not chosen by the same advocate or in the same year.
Canada Reads
2002
Canada Reads 2002 aired from April 16 to 19, 2002. The winning title was announced on April 23, 2002, Canada Book Day. Mary Walsh was the moderator.
2003
Canada Reads 2003 aired from April 21 to 25, 2003. Bill Richardson was the moderator.
Author Title Advocate Hubert Aquin Next Episode Denise Bombardier Paul Hiebert Sarah Binks Will Ferguson Helen Humphreys The Lost Garden Mag Ruffman Wayne Johnston The Colony of Unrequited Dreams Justin Trudeau Yann Martel Life of Pi Nancy Lee 2004
Canada Reads 2004 aired on both CBC Radio and CBC Newsworld February 16 to 20, 2004. Bill Richardson was the moderator.
Author Title Advocate Guy Vanderhaeghe The Last Crossing Jim Cuddy Thomas King Green Grass, Running Water Glen Murray Alice Munro The Love of a Good Woman Measha Brueggergosman Monique Proulx The Heart is an Involuntary Muscle Francine Pelletier Mordecai Richler Barney's Version Zsuzsi Gartner 2005
Canada Reads 2005 was broadcast from February 21 to 25, 2005. Bill Richardson was again the moderator.
Author Title Advocate Frank Parker Day Rockbound Donna Morrissey Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake Olivia Chow Leonard Cohen Beautiful Losers Molly Johnson1 Jacques Poulin Volkswagen Blues Roch Carrier Mairuth Sarsfield No Crystal Stair Sherraine MacKay 1This title had been originally chosen by Rufus Wainwright, but was defended by Molly Johnson when Wainwright was unable to participate. 2006
Canada Reads 2006 was broadcast from April 17 to 21, 2006. Bill Richardson was again the moderator.
Author Title Advocate Miriam Toews A Complicated Kindness John K. Samson Joseph Boyden Three Day Road Nelofer Pazira Frances Itani Deafening Maureen McTeer Al Purdy Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems, 1962-1996 Susan Musgrave Mordecai Richler Cocksure Scott Thompson 2007
Canada Reads 2007 aired from February 26 to March 2, 2007. Bill Richardson again moderated the competition. For the 2007 competition, each of the five winning advocates from past series returned to champion a new title in an "all-star" edition of the series.
2008
Canada Reads 2008 aired from February 25 to 29, 2008. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.
Author Title Advocate Paul Quarrington King Leary Dave Bidini Timothy Findley Not Wanted on the Voyage Zaib Shaikh Mavis Gallant From the Fifteenth District Lisa Moore Nalo Hopkinson Brown Girl in the Ring Jemini Thomas Wharton Icefields Steve MacLean 2009
Canada Reads 2009 aired from March 2 to 6, 2009. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.
Author Title Advocate Lawrence Hill The Book of Negroes Avi Lewis David Adams Richards Mercy among the Children Sarah Slean Gil Adamson The Outlander Nicholas Campbell Brian Francis Fruit: A Novel About a Boy and His Nipples Jen Sookfong Lee Michel Tremblay The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant Anne-Marie Withenshaw 2010
Canada Reads 2010 aired from March 8 to 12, 2010. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.
Author Title Advocate Nicolas Dickner, translated by Lazer Lederhendler Nikolski Michel Vézina Wayson Choy The Jade Peony Samantha Nutt Marina Endicott Good to a Fault Simi Sara Ann-Marie MacDonald Fall on Your Knees Perdita Felicien Douglas Coupland Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture Cadence Weapon 2011
Canada Reads 2011 aired in February 2011. The producers announced a slightly different format for the 2011 contest; throughout the month of October 2010, an online vote was held to determine the books that listeners consider the 40 "most essential" Canadian novels of the past decade, and the panelists made their choices from within that list. Only novels, not short story collections, were eligible; however, novels which have previously been included in a Canada Reads competition were still eligible for renomination.[2]
Author Title Advocate Terry Fallis The Best Laid Plans Ali Velshi Angie Abdou The Bone Cage Georges Laraque Jeff Lemire Essex County Sara Quin Ami McKay The Birth House Debbie Travis Carol Shields Unless Lorne Cardinal 2012
Canada Reads 2012 will air in February 2012. The books in the 2012 edition will all be non-fiction. A list of 40 non-fiction books were announced as being the shortlist finalists in October 2011. [3] The 40 books include 'And No Birds Sang' by Farley Mowat, Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire, The Last Spike by Pierre Berton, and The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. Listeners could vote on up to five books they wanted to be the finalists. [4]The finalists were announced November 2nd. They are:
- The Boy In the Moon by Ian Brown
- Cockeyed by Ryan Knighton
- The Game by Ken Dryden
- Louis Riel by Chester Brown
- On A Cold Road by Dave Bidini
- Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
- Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
- Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire
- Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre
- The Tiger by John Vaillant
Le Combat des livres
2004
Radio-Canada, the French-language service of CBC, aired a French version of Canada Reads, entitled Le combat des livres ("Battle of the Books"), from March 29 to April 2, 2004. It was moderated by Marie-France Bazzo.
Author Title Advocate Gil Courtemanche Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali Laure Waridel Margaret Atwood La servante écarlate Julius Grey Jacques Godbout Une histoire américaine Gérald Larose Yann Martel L'histoire de Pi Louise Forestier Gaétan Soucy La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes Micheline Lanctôt 2005
The 2005 edition of Le Combat des livres aired from March 14 to March 18, 2005. It was moderated by Marie-France Bazzo.
Author Title Advocate Réjean Ducharme L'Avalée des avalés Sophie Cadieux Nancy Huston Dolce agonia Réjean Thomas Jean-Jacques Pelletier La Chair disparue Alain Lefèvre Elizabeth Smart À la hauteur de Grand Central Station, je me suis assise et j'ai pleuré Dennis Trudeau Michel Tremblay Thérèse et Pierrette à l'école des Saints-Anges Monique Simard 2006
The 2006 edition of Le Combat des livres aired from January 30 to February 3. It was moderated by Marie-France Bazzo.
Author Title Advocate Francine Noël La Femme de ma vie Françoise Guénette Hubert Aquin Prochain épisode Pierre Lebeau Jean Barbe Comment devenir un monstre Lucie Laurier Stéphane Dompierre Un petit pas pour l'homme Louis-José Houde Frances Itani Une coquille de silence Maureen McTeer 2007
The 2007 edition of Le Combat des livres aired from February 26 to March 2, and was moderated by Christiane Charette.
Author Title Advocate Denis Thériault L'Iguane Dominique Lévesque Marie Laberge Le poids des ombres Pauline Marois Mathyas Lefebure D'où viens-tu berger? Robert Frosi Yann Martel Self Sheila Copps Christian Mistral Vamp Biz 2008
The 2008 edition of Le Combat des livres aired from February 25 to February 29, and was once again chaired by Christiane Charette.
Author Title Advocate Éric Dupont La Logeuse Nicolas Langelier Marie-Claire Blais Une saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel Serge Denoncourt Jacques Godbout La concierge du Panthéon Bernard Landry Mordecai Richler Le Monde de Barney Anne Lagacé Dowson Gabrielle Roy La Détresse et l'enchantement Sophie Faucher 2009
The 2009 edition of Le Combat des livres aired from March 23 to 27, and was once again chaired by Christiane Charette.
Author Title Advocate Rawi Hage Parfum de poussière Brendan Kelly Gérard Bouchard Mistouk Raymond Gravel Jean-François Beauchemin La fabrication de l'aube Emmanuel Bilodeau D. Y. Béchard Vandal Love Esther Bégin Marie-Sissi Labrèche Borderline Janette Bertrand 2010
The 2010 edition of Le Combat des livres will air from March 22 to 26. Christiane Charette will moderate.
Author Title Advocate Dany Laferrière L'énigme du retour Françoise David Jean Barbe Comment devenir un ange Marie-Soleil Michon Patrice Desbiens L'Homme invisible Thomas Hellman Germaine Guèvremont Le survenant Christian Dufour Nancy Huston Cantique des plaines Christopher Hall Success
As a vehicle to promote interest in reading and books and to increase sales, Canada Reads has been a signal success. Even already successful titles see increases in sales driven by their inclusion in the contest: sales of Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion increased by 80,000 in 2002, the year of its appearance on Canada Reads. Its publisher, Random House of Canada attributed much of this increase to Canada Reads.
The success for lesser known titles can be as marked. Hubert Aquin's Next Episode sold 18,500 copies in the year when it won Canada Reads.
For the 2005 edition, sales of Jacques Poulin's Volkswagen Blues, which usually are about 200 copies a year, increased to 7,500 between the time the nominations were announced and the shows began airing. During the same period, 7,000 copies of Frank Parker Day's Rockbound were shipped by its publisher, the University of Toronto Press.
Criticism
There has been some criticism of Canada Reads. First, criticism has been made of the use of "celebrity" panelists. In 2007, a listener named John Mutford unsuccessfully attempted to become the first non-celebrity panelist.[5] Critics have also taken issue with the game show format, and have contended that discussion of the books has often remained on a superficial level.[6]
The choice of books has also been criticized. Originally each panelist provided a list of five books, from which the producers chose the final contenders.[citation needed] In 2005, this process changed, and the panelists submitted only one choice. Due to scheduling problems, Rufus Wainwright was not able to appear after selecting his choice, and singer Molly Johnson was chosen to defend his chosen book.[7]
References
- ^ CBC Canada Reads Book Club
- ^ "Canada Reads aims to find book of decade". cbc.ca, October 5, 2010.
- ^ http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/books/story/2011/10/18/canada-reads-list.html
- ^ http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/2011/10/the-canada-reads-true-stories-top-40-revealed.html
- ^ "Iqaluimmiut for Canada Reads 2008"
- ^ "The Great Canadian Book Brawl". The Globe and Mail, February 19, 2005, Page R7.
- ^ "IN BRIEF: Molly Johnson replaces Rufus Wainwright for Canada Reads"
External links
- Canada Reads web site
- Le combat des livres 2004 at Radio-Canada (in French)
- Le combat des livres 2005 at Radio-Canada (in French)
- Le combat des livres 2006 at Radio-Canada (in French)
- Le combat des livres 2007 at Radio-Canada (in French)
- Le combat des livres 2008 at Radio-Canada (in French)
Categories:- Canadian literature
- CBC Radio One programs
- CBC network shows
- Canadian reality television series
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