I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany

Free Books, whoo hoo! I won a set of the 5 Canada Reads 2007 books, courtesy of a draw at Toronto Public Library & CBC. I'll have my book reports for you by the end of April as I aim to get through one a week.

For those who don't know the Canada Reads program, it's a competition created by CBC to encourage Canadians to read more Canadian literature. It was the Canadian attempt to capitlize on the upsurge in booksales created by the Oprah book club, with major promotion on the CBC and in bookstores. Here's the description straight from Wikipedia:

The candidate books for each edition of Canada Reads are announced several months before the programs are broadcast. They are then promoted in bookstores, in the hope that the listening and viewing public will purchase and read them all before the programs air. In some cases, publishers have published special editions of the nominated titles. The publisher of the final Canada Reads title makes a donation to charity. In 2005 this a portion of sales proceeds of the winning book went to The Movement for Canadian Literacy.

Canada Reads 2007 aired from February 26 to March 2, 2007. Bill Richardson again moderated the competition.

For the 2007 competition, each of the five winning advocates from past series returned to champion a new title in an "all-star" edition of the series. The books chosen by the participants were revealed in late November 2006, in a series of interviews conducted by Richardson on Sounds Like Canada. The titles and champions were:

Children of My Heart by Gabrielle Roy, championed by Denise Bombardier
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill, championed by John K. Samson
Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis, championed by Steven Page
The Song of Kahunsha by Anosh Irani, championed by Donna Morrissey
Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor, championed by Jim Cuddy

The winning title was Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill.

Canada Reads web site
Amazon links for browsing, reviewing, or buying:

Children of My Heart by Gabrielle Roy
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill (winner)
The Song of Kahunsha by Anosh Irani
Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor
Natasha and Other Stories by Ben Bezmozgis