Schatje's Reading Resolutions for 2017 (Celebrating Canada's Sesquicentennial)

It’s the beginning of a new year, so it’s time for reading resolutions.  Since 2017 is Canada’s 150^th birthday (officially on July 1 but celebrated throughout the year), my resolutions are going to focus on Canadian books.  I’m including a dozen resolutions, one for each month, and I’m sharing them; perhaps someone will adopt some of these resolutions.

Read a Canadian book you read or should have read in high school or university.  (I plan to re-read Margaret Lawrence’s The Stone Angel.)

Read a book that wins a major Canadian literary award during the year.  (I will blog about nominations for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.)

Read a book written by a Canadian author for children.  (How about The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield?  I intend to revisit the poems of Dennis Lee.)

Read a book written by a Canadian author for young adults.  (I think I will read the Emily trilogy by Lucy Maud Montgomery.)

Read, in translation if necessary, a book written by a Canadian Francophone author.  (I want to re-read Where Nests the Water Hen by Gabrielle Roy.)

Read a Canadian book chosen for you by an adult close to you – spouse, partner, best friend, sibling.  (Keep asking until you are recommended a book you haven't already read.)

Read a work of non-fiction written by a Canadian.  (Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD by Roméo Dallaire is on my list.)

Read a book written by an aboriginal author from Canada.  (The Reason You Walk by Wab Kinew is my choice.)

Read a book that has won a Canada Reads competition.  (Go to http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/ for a list of past winners or read the 2017 winner which will be announced on March 30.)

Read a Canadian book that has been challenged in Canada.  (Go to http://www.freedomtoread.ca/challenged-works/ for a list of titles which people have tried to remove from Canadian library or school shelves.)

Read a book written by an author born outside of Canada who lives/lived in Canada, even if only temporarily.  (John Irving, Annie Proulx, Emma Donoghue, Anosh Irani, and M. J. Vassanji come immediately to mind.)

Read a short story collection written by a Canadian.  (Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant are obvious choices; I intend to read Margaret Atwood’s Stone Mattress and Guy Vanderhaege’s Daddy Lenin and Other Stories.)

So my challenge to all my readers is to read Canadian.  If you are looking for Canadian authors, why not peruse my blog entries between Dec. 1 and Dec. 24, 2016, when I highlighted 50 writers from Canada.