Well read?

When I noticed last night that the Literary Review of Canada had published what they think are the 100 most important Canadian books ever written, and that the federal government's 1985 Royal Commission on Economic Development and the Geological Survey of Canada of 1863 was on it, I figured I'd probably blog about it.

And then Kim beat me to it.

Bless Kim's heart, for she really is my connection to Canadian literature. I went through her list last year, and if I've read anything else on it since, it's probably because she's loaned it to me. I'm going to revisit that list below, but I'm going to go one step further. At the end of the list, I'm going to add five Canadian books that I've read, and challenge fellow bloggers - Canadian and otherwise - to do the same and add their own five. Maybe at the end of this little exercise, we can send the new and improved list to the Literary Review of Canada and suggest that it's a more accurate and relevant than the 470-year-old Account of the Second Voyage of the Navigation of 1535 and 1536 by Jacques Cartier.

Add your picks in the comments, or on your own blog, and be sure to leave a link!

Here's Kim's 101 (ones I've read are in bold)

A Book of Secrets, M. G. Vassanji
A Discovery of Strangers, Rudy Wiebe
A Dream Like Mine, M. T. Kelly
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
A Song for Nettie Johnston, Gloria Sawai
A Jest of God, Margaret Laurence
Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
Anil’s Ghost, Michael Ondaatje
Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Mordecai Richler
As For Me and My House, Sinclair Ross
Ascension, Steven Galloway
Away, Jane Urquhart
The Backwoods of Canada, Catharine Parr Traill
Barometer Rising, Hugh MacLennan
Bear, Marian Engel
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float, Farley Mowat
The Boy in the Drawer, Robert Munsch
Burning Water, George Bowering
Calculating God, Robert J. Sawyer
Clara Callan, Richard B. Wright
The Cure for Death by Lightning, Gail Anderson-Dargatz
The Dark, Robert Munsch
Deep Hollow Creek, Shelia Watson
The Deptford Trilogies, Robertson Davies
The Deserter, Douglas LePan
The Devil’s Instrument, W. O. Mitchell
Digby, David Walker
The Diviners, Margaret Laurence
The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood
Elizabeth and After, Matt Cohen
Emily of New Moon, L. M. Montgomery
The Engineer of Human Souls, Josef Skvorecky
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
The Englishman’s Boy, Guy Vanderhaeghe
Fall on Your Knees, Ann-Marie Macdonald
Falling Angels, Barbara Gowdy
Family Matters, Rohinton Mistry
Finnie Walsh, Steven Galloway
The Fire Dwellers, Margaret Laurence
Forms of Devotion, Diane Schoemperlen
Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
Headhunter, Timothy Findley
Hetty Dorval, Ethel Wilson
Island, Alistair MacLeod
Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur, Mordecai Richler
Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case, Mordecai Richler
Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, Mordecai Richler
Jake and the Kid, W. O. Mitchell
Larry’s Party, Carol Shields
Legends of Vancouver, E. Pauline Johnson
Lives of Girls and Women, Alice Munro
Lives of Saints, Nino Ricci
Lost Girls, Andrew Pyper
The Love of a Good Woman, Alice Munro
Love You Forever, Robert Munsch
The Loved and the Lost, Morley Callaghan
The Lyre of Orpheus, Robertson Davies
Man Descending, Guy Vanderhaeghe
Mercy Among the Children, David Adams Richards
Never Cry Wolf, Farley Mowat
he New Ancestors, Dave Godfrey
Nights Below Station Street, David Adams Richards
No Great Mischief, Alistair Macleod
The Paperbag Princess, Robert Munsch
The Piano Man’s Daughter, Timothy Findley
The Pillar, David Walker
Pilgrim, Timothy Findley
A Recipe for Bees, Gail Anderson-Dargatz
The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne, Jack Hodgins
The Roaring Girl, Greg Hollingshead
Roughing it in the Bush, Susanna Moodie (only part of it, I'm afraid)
Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje
Running to Paradise, Kildare Dobbs
The Sacrifice, Adele Wiseman
Settlers of the Marsh, Frederick Philip Grove
Shakespeare’s Dog, Leon Rooke
Simple Recipes, Madeleine, Thien--I went to one of her readings
The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence
The Stone Carvers, Jane Urquhart
The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (I guess we like stone in Canada)
Street of Riches, Gabrielle Roy
The Studhorse Man, Robert Kroetsch
Such a Long Journey, Rohinton Mistry
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, Stephen Leacock
Tales From Generation Xhausted, Shelley Divnich Haggert
The Temptations of Big Bear, Rudy Wiebe
Things That Must Not be Forgotten, Michael David Kwan
Third Magic, Welwyn Wilton Katz
Truth and Bright Water, Thomas King
Two Solitudes, Hugh MacLennan
Unless, Carol Shields
Wars, Timothy Findley
The Way the Crow Flies, Ann-Marie Macdonald
Whale Music, Paul Quarrington
The Whirlpool, Jane Urquhart
Wild Animals I Have Known, Ernest Thompson Seton
Who Has Seen the Wind? W.O. Mitchell

My five, picked not necessarily for literary value, stunning intellectual insight, or profound revelation, but sometimes just for sheer enjoyment:

Happiness (tm), Will Ferguson

Alice, I Think, Susan Juby

Canuck Chicks and Maple Leaf Mamas, Ann Douglas

Why I Hate Canadians, Will Ferguson

Right Church, Wrong Pew, Walter Stewart

And this winter, I'm aiming for Eleanor Rigby, By Douglas Coupland. I've flipped through it in the bookstore, and it looks intriguing.

List away!