Canadian girl out and aboot

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Counts- 7 books were written by Canadians, which is down from past months. Three poetry books (all Canadian).

Yeah, I know. It's almost the end of March. Well, better late than never.

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I read 12 books last month. Nine of these books were written by Canadians!

This year, I read 192 books in total. I started and didn't finish several books, discovered several new authors (Jonathan Ames, Dan Chaon and Brad Warner), read a lot of books about food and read a lot of Canadian literature (as always). I track all of my books on goodreads. I was surprised to find that my rating system is bad. In some cases, I rate a book highly, but don't remember it later. The books that I do remember then end up ranking higher over time.


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I just got the funniest Xmas card from a friend. As most people know, I love Leonardo DiCaprio. My friend Sunni just sent me a postcard with a picture of Leo from Romeo and Juliet. On the back the card reads, "My Heart will go on at Christmas and year-round." She signed it from Leo, but I could tell that it was from her from the handwriting. It's hilarious! I laughed really hard when I saw it.

We've been living in a deep freeze here. The cold started on Saturday. I woke up and completely wimped out. I was determined to stay inside, but my friend Ben offered to pick me up and take me to the Edmonton Journal bookfair. Once I decided to go out, I was okay. I ended up bundling up and walking to the farmer's market, so I left my house even before Ben came to get me. The bookfair was a blast. We listened to some children's writers, then talked to Todd Babiak via Skype. Todd was in France, but his Internet connection died. So he ran to a bar and we could talk to him while he was in the bar, surrounded by French patrons. Then his French friend came onto the connection and talked to us for a long time. We heard some other writers read, but one of the highlights was definitely the security guard at the Journal. He is a writer and journalist who is in exile from Iraq. He has continued to write his poetry and fiction and has written a book that was copyedited by one of the Journal writers. So he read his poetry in Arabic, and then his friend read it in English. It was very cool. After this, Ben took me on a tour of the Edmonton Journal newsroom and I tried to identify various writers by their desks.

That evening, I went to a party. It was in the -40s but I walked the 10 blocks there instead of starting my car. I have a great winter system. I have a very warm parka and I wear a tuque and a face warmer. Then with my boots, mitts and cords, I'm good to go. The only exposed skin is around my eyes, and the only thing that really gets cold is the area between my boots and my parka. So basically, I had cold knees.

The party was quite fun although no one was dressed up and everyone left at about midnight, due to the cold. I ended up talking to a high school drama and dance teacher and an engineer whose wife is doing a masters' in international development. He and his wife had just done some overseas work in Zambia, and it was quite interesting to hear about.

On Sunday, I stayed home the entire day. I did not get dressed or change clothes until 8 at night, when I changed into a different set of pyjamas. I read 2 newspapers, watched two movies (The Apple and the Triplets of Belleville) and read most of "The Bishop's Man" by Linden MacIntyre. I think I'm going to have pyjama day every couple of months. It was wonderfully refreshing.

Today my brother called me at 8 a.m., wondering where our parents were. Please note that my brother lives in the same city as them, while I do not. I had talked to them on Friday, but immediately became concerned since it is so damn cold. I was imagining them stranded in a snowbank somewhere. So I called them repeatedly, and found out that they're okay and fine, although their water has been shot off for a few hours due to a water main break. The ironic thing about this is that my brother went to Calgary without telling them, and then he was concerned that they went away without telling him. Weird.

I keep on neglecting this in favour of www.goodreads.com. However, I know that some people use my list for book recs, so I should catch up.

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More later. I'll write some more this week.

I am still really far behind on this

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You can read my review, to be published in the November issue here

Man, I've just been writing away like a fiend, doing some freelance work and work related stories. Crazy stuff. And in between all that, I've been reading like a fiend. In the past 2.5 days, I've devoured three books. I mean, I normally read a lot but this has been just ridiculous.

I've also been doing things to get ready for my trip to BC and am actually going to be social this evening and go see a movie at the Edmonton Film Festival tonight with Mari and her dude.

I've got some social events lined up for when I return from BC. Being this anti-social is okay once in a while, but I can't let it rule my life. That said, I've also been to dance class and yoga this week, and walked over to my friend's to pick up a book and visited with her for about 20 minutes, so I have been leaving the house. I've just really had my nose buried in my work.