17th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge Sign-up and FAQ

Welcome to the 17th year of the Canadian Reading Challenge and thanks to the previous hosts.I'm pleased to be able to bring you this challenge once again.

First, here is the linky to signup for the challenge. Please link to your post specifically joining the challenge and not just to your site.  

Second here are the answers to questions about the Reading Challenge.

1. What is the Canadian Book Challenge?

Created by John Mutford at the Book Mine Set and hosted by him for its first 10 years, and then by Indextrious for two years, and now by me, the Canadian Reading Challenge is an annual online reading challenge in which participants from Canada and around the world aim to read and review 13 or more Canadian books in a one year span: Canada Day to Canada Day eve. Reviews must be posted online and participants are asked to share links to their reviews with other participants. More on reviews below. (It's also a lot of fun and collectively we've read and reviewed thousands of Canadian titles) This year's challenge will run July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

2. How do I join the Challenge?

Use the Mr. Linky on this page to add your information including the link to your signup post if you have one. After you've added your first review for the challenge, your name will appear in the sidebar for this year's challenge. 

You can join at any point between now and June 1, 2024. Although the goal is to read at least 13 Canadian books, we're also here to promote Canadian authors, so we hope you find some that you might not have discovered before. 

3. What books are eligible for the challenge?

Canadian books can be in any genre (fiction, nonfiction, picture book, poetry, plays, anthologies, graphic novels, cookbooks, etc.) and any format (print books, audiobooks, ebooks, etc.). They can be written by Canadian authors (by birth or immigration) or be set in Canada or have Canadians as the subject. Ultimately, participants must decide for themselves whether or not something fits the description of Canada, however if it isn't clear in your review as to WHY you are counting your read as a Canadian one, please add a line or two to explain. You can literally find thousands of reviews from previous challenges both at  The Book Mine Set and at the Indextrious Reader  as well as on this blog in the sidebar. I also recommend the site 49th Shelf as a great source for Canadian books. These are good places to find authors and titles, especially if you live elsewhere in the world.

Rereads count as well, but not within the same annual challenge.

4. Do I need to know ahead of time which books I'll be reading?

No. But if you want to plan ahead, feel free to. Some people find it is more of a challenge to do it that way and others prefer serendipitous discovery. 

5. Do I need to have a theme?

No. The original concept was to read at least one book from each province and territory (thus 13 as the goal number) and that is always one to consider if you want to really encompass our country. The challenge themes on the site vary each year, and are designed to be information and sometimes thought-provoking. Themes can make a challenge more difficult, or more fun, or both. 

6. What if I don't read 13 books?

If you don't but you've had fun, it's still good. Your reviews will be read by other participants. And you'll have a chance again the next year's challenge. There are no prizes for achieving the goal of 13 books, or for the most books read (other than bragging rights). The idea is to enjoy discovering the wealth of authors and books this country has to offer, and to read Canadian. 

7. Can my books count towards other challenges?

Of course! That is half the fun! I have books that have applied to more than one challenge many times. 

8. What if I read a book and don't have time to review it?

Sorry, that is one of the key actions in the Canadian Reading Challenge. It doesn't count until it is reviewed. The reviews don't have be lengthy, and they can include your thoughts and reactions to the book, not just a standard review. Please avoid spoilers for those who might want to read the book in future. 

9. What if I don't finish a book, can I still review it and count it?

It is entirely your choice. If you feel that it's something about the book that made you not finish it, that could be worthy of noting. If you just left the book at the beach, and haven't found another copy to complete your read, probably not.

10. If I don't have a blog, how do I post a review online? 

Many of the challenge participants are bloggers, but not all. Book reviews can also be posted on sites such as GoodReads, Storygraph, Bookcrossing, Indigo, Amazon, and more. However, please note these few requirements:

    i. Participants wishing to read your reviews should not need a membership or signup to do so. For instance, not everyone has a Facebook account, so that would be a barrier. 

    ii. When you share the link to your review ensure that it is to the review directly and not your blog or profile. Participants shouldn't have to go searching to find it. 

11. How do I share links to my reviews?

Every month I will place a post for reviews for books read that month. It will go up within the first couple days of the month and expire a couple days into the following month.

12. What's with the logo and theme?

Every year I include a photo I've taken of somewhere in Canada. This is a scene taken on the west coast and gives a sense of the beauty of our country, as well as of the precarious nature of that beauty as we see the smoke from the many wildfires in the area. This photo is from 2017, but we see that 2023 is looking to be a bad wildfire season across the country, with wildfires needing fighting in 9 of the 13 provinces and territories by early June. I searched a few sites and although I don't claim this as an authoritative list, I'm using the largest 13 wildfires in Canadian history (pre-2023) as this year's theme.

1. The 2014 Northwest Territories fires which burned 3,400,000 hectares

2. The 1989 Manitoba fires which burned 2,500,000 to 3,280,000 hectares

3. The 1919 Saskatchewan/Alberta fires which burned 2,023,000 hectares

4, The 1950 Chinchaga fires (Alberta and B.C.) which burned between 1,400,000 and             1,700,000 hectares

5. The 2018 B.C. fires which burned 1,351,314 hectares

6. The 2017 B.C. fires which burned 1,216,053 hectares

7. The 1825 Miramichi (New Brunswick) fires which burned 1,200,000 hectares

8. The 2019 Alberta fires which burned 883,414 hectares

9. The 2011 Richardson Backcountry (Alberta) fires which burned 705,075 hectares

10. The 2016 Fort MacMurray (Alberta and Saskatchewan) fires which burned 589,552 hectares

11. The 1870 Saguenay (Quebec) fires which burned 390,000 to 400.000 hectares

12. The 1948 Mississagi (Ontario) fires which burned 261,000 to 280,000 hectares

13. The 1958 Kech (B.C.) fires which burned 225,920 hectares

Area burned is only one way to measure fires. Others are lives lost, property destroyed, cost incurred, and number of people evacuated. Many of the above fires claimed lives, but even when they didn't, damage affected lives. 

Main Sources for data

* Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fires_in_Canada 

* http://www.change-climate.com/Forest_Fires_Deforestation/Canadian_A_To_Z_Forest_Bush_Wild_Fires_Atlas.htm