The home stretch June 20, 2021

Last August I wrote about my 101 Books Project, and I am now on the home stretch. It looks like I will have completed my goal of reading Yann Martel’s 101 recommendations to a Prime Minister within the year. Excepting those books that I couldn’t find at a local library or cheaply online - about a dozen - or those that I had already read and chose not to re-read - another dozen or so -, I will have polished off the remaining few within the week. They are pretty short, and I have nothing else to do. 

I am already sad that this journey is ending. Just within the last few weeks, the books I’ve devoured are explosions of creativity and meaning: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn, Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Added to that were three captivating plays, Caligula by Camus, Six Characters in Search of an Author by Pirandello, and Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad, and one quirky “novel in verse”, Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson. 

Yet, how I wish that another person would have been game for this literary adventure and savored these books with me. Somewhat understandably, my friends and family pooh-poohed the idea of plowing through someone else’s list of recommendations, but for me, during COVID especially, Martel’s guidance was a godsend. 

One never knows the impact one might have on another, so thank you, Yann Martel for reaching out from Saskatoon to Point Reyes Station. You may not have made a dent on the Prime Minister, but you’ve led me on a book odyssey, and I’m all the better for it.