And the nominees are ...

You've all probably figured out by now that I really like to read. I'm not sure why ... I don't exactly come from a family of book lovers. My mom worked full-time nights while we were growing up, so her reading time was limited. She definitely needed novels that you could pick up and put down without a tonne of thought. Hence my addiction to the regency romance. I think I had read every Barbara Cartland in print by the time I was ten.

My dad, well, while he wasn't that interested in books, he was (and still is) a committed newspaper reader. His daily view into the world came courtesy of the Toronto Star. On Sundays, he read the Toronto Sun (apparently, it had better sports, the Sunshine Girl, and was more ideologically suited to his political bent.) We also took the two local papers, the weekly from my father's hometown AND the local paper up at the cottage. He read all of them cover to cover -- including the fliers. Like all fathers, my dad possessed a weird sixth sense about improperly folded sections and would scold anyone who touched the paper before he did.

Me? I read EVERYTHING (except for newspapers ... for some reason they make me nervous) and at Christmas, I use the holiday as an excuse to share my love of the written word. Every year, I select one book and give it to my close girlfriends as part of their gift. This year, it was a tough choice. As I scanned back through my book diary, I found there were quite a few works that met my criteria. So ... the nominees for the dog-eared soul's book of the year are:

1. The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
2. The Zahir Paulo Coelho
3. I am Charlotte Simmons Tom Wolfe
4. Suite Française Irene Nemirovsky
5. Codex: A Novel Lev Grossman
6. Nick Twisp: Youth in Revolt C.D. Payne

The winner will be announced December 25th at 6:00 pm. A half hour later in Newfoundland.