See you Monday, January 5 with fresh entries! Happy Holidays!

(Originally published October 28, 2008)

Next week, please join me for five full days of Giller, one sighting a day for each of the titles nominated for this year’s prize: Joseph Boyden for Through Black Spruce, Anthony De Sa for Barnacle Love, Marina Endicott for Good to a Fault, Rawi Hage for Cockroach, and Mary Swan for The Boys in the Trees.

This is the second of two weeks during which I respond to some of my first page sightings. I note only the first sentence, and structure my response to use the same number of words.

Here we go!

Bloor Line at Dundas West Station

Caucasian female, mid 20s, with long brown hair and tanned complexion, wearing black jeans, fleece, and Blundstones.

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne (Oneworld Classics)

Page one:

A throng of bearded men, in sad-coloured garments and grey steeple-crowned hats, inter-mixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.

The students sat cross-legged on the gymnasium floor, hands in their laps, some rocking bum cheek to bum cheek, crouched in anticipation for the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, one of their own strapped inside, looking to the sky, ready for everything.

Next week, please join me for five full days of Giller, one sighting a day for each of the titles nominated for this year’s prize: Joseph Boyden for Through Black Spruce, Anthony De Sa for Barnacle Love, Marina Endicott for Good to a Fault, Rawi Hage for Cockroach, and Mary Swan for The Boys in the Trees.

This is the second of two weeks during which I respond to some of my first page sightings. I note only the first sentence, and structure my response to use the same number of words.

Here we go!

Bloor Line at Dundas West Station

Caucasian female, mid 20s, with long brown hair and tanned complexion, wearing black jeans, fleece, and Blundstones.

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne (Oneworld Classics)

Page one:

A throng of bearded men, in sad-coloured garments and grey steeple-crowned hats, inter-mixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.

The students sat cross-legged on the gymnasium floor, hands in their laps, some rocking bum cheek to bum cheek, crouched in anticipation for the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, one of their own strapped inside, looking to the sky, ready for everything.