Dusty | The Bookshelf Page
There are a variety of literary awards in Canad; The Giller, The Governor General, The Steven Leacock, and countless regional awards. The Readers Bookclub of Canada wants to add another - The Blue Box award.
Instead of showcasing the cream of the crop, they want to highlight the other end of the spectrum - the worst book of the year!
Why?
The Reader's Bookclub chair S. Scholenburgen explains, "books are not only an investment of money, but, also hours of time. We want to help Canadians NOT read a book that will waste their precious leisure time."
The Reader's Bookclub meets weekly, except for the two weeks around Christmas, and read 50 books a year. They have a simple points systems where they give all the books a rating between 1 and 10. At the end of the year the winner of the award is the book with the lowest number of points. The members, or judges, are common Canadian stock including two seniors, a librarian, a grain farmer, a civil servant, one unemployed graphic designer, a freelance wedding event coordinator, and even someone who went to University for literature. The group makes an effort to appeal to the common Canadian reader.
When asked if a positive award would be better for readers and writers alike, the group had many responses. They thought it was time a different point of view was brought to the awards table to shake things up. They were adamant that if you get rid of 'the junk', as they say, then more people will have better reading experiences and therefore read more. One member also noted this award as a valid reason to clear a book off an already crowded bookshelf.
Looking over their list of previous nominees I noticed Life of Pi was on their list. This book won many awards, was widely read, and even turned into a major motion picture. When questioned about this they all agreed it should have won the Blue Box award. One of the older members was very vocal about this saying, "Yes, a terrible book...Tiger and a boy on a tiny boat seems very far fetched and also very boring. There was also spelling mistakes, right in the title! Pi instead of Pie! That was what really put it over the edge for me."
This year the group has organized their first ever award ceremony. According to the group's twitter feed : The first official awards ceremony will take place at the Ramada, lobby, 7:00 until security kicks us out. #bookawards #blueboxaward
When I commented that the feelings and/or reputation of the author could be damaged, their response slightly shocked me. The group consensus was that any author would be ecstatic to win such an award. The club sends a very uplifting letter explaining their reasons and hope the author will take it as constructive criticism and write a better book. S. Scholenburgen again, "An, let's face it, an award is an award. They can always put it on the dust cover of their book - winner of The Blue Box Award...More than likely we will develop a following here and it will end up, being somewhat of an oxymoron, and selling more books." That is one of the biggest concern the group has with taking this award public. They fear it may spiral out of control and encourage authors to write bad books just to win!
Regina | 15:55
No comments:
Post a Comment