top5s online

Every year, the university I work at chooses a book of the year, a work of contemporary Canadian fiction. Theoretically, all (ok, some) students, faculty and staff read it for class assignment purposes or for fun - and then the author visits in the winter. There are always events, readings, contests and interviews surrounding the author visit. It's usually pretty neat and I've always enjoyed seeing and hearing the author talk about the chosen book. I've been around for the past 3 Books of the Year: The Golden Mean, The Bone Cage, and The Cat's Table. I've also read a number of past Books of the Year before I became employed at the university: The Cellist of Sarajevo, Life of Pi, and Icefields, though there are many more I haven't read as the Book of the Year has been running since 1998. All of these books I've enjoyed to some extent. That changed this year though. This year's book was amazing, and possibly one of the best works of Canadian fiction I'...

Book club decided we'd open the year by reading classics (as defined by being available in the public domain - i.e. no Hunger Games or other modern classics). I didn't want to read a stuffy English period drama about helpless, lovelorn, women, so set about finding something more exciting, less heavy, and not boring. I decided I wanted to read a classic fantasy, although finding a public domain fantasy proved difficult. I thought maybe The Wizard of Oz, but decided I wanted to read the Marvel comic version instead. Then I came across Jules Verne. I've always wanted to read one of his books and decided to choose between the famous three: Around the World in 80 Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. After reading their wikipedia pages, 80 days sounded like it was full of misadventure (not my favourite) and I'm not big on water or boats or fish. Journey to the Centre of the Earth sounded fun - I pictured an exciting adventure ful...