Saturday, March 15, 2008

And the Winner is…..

As many of you avid readers of That’s the Book! know I’ve been paying close attention to Canada Reads, which has been over for two weeks now, but they had a year end round-up this past week. They asked for people to submit questions for the winner of this year’s author. Paul Quarrington (his book was King Leary) was then going to choose ten questions that he would answer. If your question was picked you would receive a signed copy of King Leary (author or defender of the book), a signed Canada Reads 2008 poster, and a gift certificate for the CBC shop.

I’ve noticed, because of the Canadian Book Challenge and Canada Reads, that it’s difficult to find Canadian literature in Korea. So, I wanted to find out what an author thought of this situation. Thus I submitted the following question to Paul Quarrington:

I’m currently teaching English in Korea and have been paying close attention to the Canada Reads competition, as I do every year. However, I wasn’t able to attain any of the selections in any of the bookstores in the country. So, I wanted to know what Mr. Quarrington thinks of the marketing of Canadian books overseas? I love Canadian literature and I want anything Canadian, and not Margaret Atwood or Robertson Davies, I have to place a special order. At present I think the Canadians out number the Americans as teachers, so I don’t think it’s due to not enough Canadians around. And I guess as a follow-up question, what would you suggest be done about this issue? Thank you.
After making this submission a couple of weeks ago I didn’t think about it anymore.

Flash forward to last night. Charlotte and I went to Seoul for White Day (a day when men give gifts to women, women did the gift giving on Valentines Day) we had dinner and watched Blueberry Nights (review coming soon to The Reel View, my movie site). I happened to find a collection of Shakespeare’s works in graphic novel (No Fear Shakespeare) form.  There were three that they had, I don’t know if more exist or not, and I pick up Macbeth and cannot wait to read it.  When we returned I checked my email and low and behold there was an email from Canada Reads informing me that my question was one of ten questions selected. I was quite excited about this find.

Now, I play the waiting game for my book, poster and gift certificate to show up. If you’re interested in seeing the winning questions and Paul Quarrington’s answers you find them here.

Posted by Aaron Kropf in 14:46:03
Comments

4 Responses

  1. raidergirl3 says:
    March 16, 2008 at 6:26 am

    Very cool that your question got picked, and even cooler that you won the book! Congrats, and I hope it doesn’t take too long to get your prize. I just got his book The Ravine, but haven’t read King Leary yet.

  2. Bybee says:
    March 17, 2008 at 1:25 pm

    I’m really happy for you, Aaron & I’m holding my breath waiting for your winning book to arrive in the mail so I can borrow it after a barely decent interval!

  3. Aaron Kropf says:
    March 17, 2008 at 9:44 pm

    ridergirl3: Thanks, let me know what you thought of The Ravine. I’ll be sure to post about King Leary.

    Bybee: you don’t even have to wait for a barely decent interval before you borrow it. It’s going to be a while before I get to it.

  4. uweiofs says:
    June 9, 2009 at 10:25 am

    You are smart,only smart person can do such a smart job.

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