| Other names | Le Combat des livres |
|---|---|
| Running time | 30 min. |
| Country | Canada |
| Languages | English, French |
| Home station | CBC Radio One Première Chaîne |
| TV adaptations | CBC Television CBC Newsworld Bold TV |
| Hosts | Jian Ghomeshi Bill Richardson Mary Walsh Hannah Sung Marie-France Bazzo Christiane Charette |
| Creators | 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 |
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 aired from April 16 to 19, 2002. The winning title was announced on April 23, 2002, Canada Book Day. Mary Walsh was the moderator.
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 |
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 |
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. | ||
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 |
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.
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 shortlisted. [4]The 10 semi-finalists were announced November 2nd. They are:
The finalists are:
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.
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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.
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. 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]