Update: Amy's Marathon of Books

Back in December I posted about Amy's plans to start a marathon of books.  Now, as of April 15th, Amy has read and reviewed 105 books, placing her 2250.6 kms into her journey. She has read her way from the east coast and just crossed the border from Quebec into Ontario.   That is 22506 pages for those who were wondering, or 277 hours and 11 minutes between the pages of Canadian teen fiction.

How does one run a marathon by reading?  Amy is reading a book a day that is written about or takes place Canadian locations from coast to coast.  Inspired by Terry Fox's famous marathon, Amy  realized that Terry Fox could run a six minute kilometer - the same amount of time it takes her to read ten pages. "so now when I read, I keep track of how many pages I've read and I use that to calculate how many kilometers I've traveled," she says.

Taking on 365 books in 365 days is a huge challenge. So, why is she doing this?

After attending an award gala for literature, she noticed that there was no award for Canadian teen fiction. The Marathon of Books is a way to raise funds for such an award and to change attitudes about people with disabilities by reminding us that they can contribute, perhaps just in different ways.

The goal is to raise $100,000 which will provide an $5,000 prize to each year's winning author of Canadian Teen fiction. The Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC) will administer the award as part of their mission to promote Canadian books for young readers.


How can you be involved?

1) Donate of the Marathon of Books. Tax receipts will be issued. Click here

2) Read your way across Canada with Amy!

"I'm encouraging teens and other teen book lovers to take the 13 Book Challenge by reading one Canadian teen fiction book from each province and territory. That way they can contribute to the new award by doing their own fundraising and perhaps write their own reviews". (CCBC)

3)  Check out Amy’s reviews and buy a copy of the titles that interest you.  The CCBC will collect a small referral fee when books are purchased via the links on the review pages.

Visit Amy's Marathon of Books website.

World Readers...Where do You Fit In?

Article by Carolyn Kellog, published July 2, 2013 in Los Angeles Times online

How many hours a week do you read?

If it's 10 hours or more, you might try moving to India -- you'll be among your people. According to this infographic, Indians spend more time reading books than the residents of any other nation. Each week, the average Indian reads for 10 hours, 42 minutes.

[Edit]: Canadians were tied with Spain for 21st in rankings with 5 hours: 48 minutes spent reading.  This is just a few minutes more than nearby American readers.

The big reading nations, after India, are Thailand (9 hours, 24 minutes), China (8 hours), the Philippines (7 hours, 36 minutes), Egypt (7.5 hours) and the Czech Republic (7 hours, 24 minutes).

Of the 30 nations surveyed, Koreans spent the least time reading: 3 hours, 16 minutes each week.

The data comes from the World Culture Score Index from a survey of 30,000 people worldwide.

Since the survey was taken in late 2004 and early 2005, it would be interesting to see if, and how, any of those measures changed.

The infographic was created by Russia Behind the Headlines and spotted by Publishing Perspectives.