Canada Reads 2013: Turf Wars

This year’s edition of Canada Reads kicked off yesterday and, though I missed the live broadcast, I watched the video online and was very impressed.

For one, I found the debate to be much more intelligent and respectful than last year. All the opening statements were thoughtful and compelling and only one panelist attacked the other books right away.

Besides the perennial “Why should all Canadians read this book?” question, Jian asked the panelists to discuss the prose of each book. The overwhelming majority seemed to take issue with The Age of Hope (but mostly because of Hope’s characterization which should be a separate question from prose, in my opinion) but Two Solitudes and Away also caught flack for being inaccesible.

February and Indian Horse received the least criticism and (after watching the book trailers) they are my picks to get to the finals.

All in all, the Canada Reads program has already succeeded: I bought the e-book edition of Indian Horse as soon as the video was over.

Have you read these titles? Who are you rooting for?