Tag Archives: One eRead Canada

One eRead Canada 2024

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Cover-image-for-French-translation-of-Hotline-by-Dimitri-Nasrallah.

This year’s choice for the One eRead Canada campaign is Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah. First, a little bit about One eRead Canada. It’s a yearly initiative started by the Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) to promote digital literature and eAudiobooks (electronic audiobooks) as formats for reading. For that reason, every year, one book by a Canadian author is made available as an eBook (in English and in French) and an eAudiobook with no restrictions on access, no need to place a hold, and no waiting lists for the month of April. For us at Vaughan Public Library, that means you can download it on the OverDrive website, through the Libby app, on Hoopla, and on Cantook Station. The eBook will also be instantaneously available in French (translated by Daniel Grenier) on these platforms. For Francophones with an interest in the audiobook, it’s being offered through “Service québécois du livre adapté (SQLA) from Bibliothèque et Archives nationale du Québec (BANQ), and in English and French from Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA), and National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS).”1 One eRead is also a national book club, author events included, to facilitate a nationwide conversation about the work. CULC’s intent is also to stimulate a dialogue around the importance of access to such digital content. You may have noticed that not every eBook is available for instant download on apps and websites like Libby and Hoopla. Publishers negotiate with vendors and libraries to determine things like how many simultaneous uses of an eBook will be permitted, how many digital copies will be available, and what restrictions there will be on use. The cost of these resources is an ongoing issue that libraries have been dealing with for quite some time. Part of the purpose of the campaign is to encourage awareness around the need for fair pricing. I could digress here…ad nauseum, but suffice it to say, libraries are constantly having to prove the worth and justify the cost of the essential services, resources, and programs we provide. Fair pricing for eBooks and eAudiobooks would go a long way.

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One e-Read Canada: Tatouine

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The Cover of Tatouine by Jean-Christophe Réhel

Do you enjoy reading e-books? Yes? That’s the only response I’ll accept 😛 A no just means you haven’t tried it yet or did in the days of the abysmally difficult-to-use Adobe Digital Editions. These days e-books are amazingly easy to use on just about any device, and if you’ve got a Kobo, they can be downloaded directly to your reader without going through extra software. You owe it to yourself/your gas budget/your eyes/your reading addiction1 to try out an e-book. And with One eRead Canada happening, you have no excuse not to try one! Throughout the month of April, Tatouine by Jean-Christophe Réhel is available through Overdrive to everyone who wants to download and read it without waiting. Additionally, the campaign has two national events around the book. An English discussion with the translators on the 19th and a French interview with the author on the 25th.

Tatouine is a poignant and often humorous novel about an unnamed protagonist in his thirties navigating life with cystic fibrosis. Despite the challenges that come with his illness, including bouncing between dead-end jobs and losing his apartment, he remains upbeat and uses humour and daydreams to cope with his day-to-day struggles. These dreams often revolve around escaping to the fictional planet “Tatouine,” similar to but distinct from Tatooine, due to his love of the Star Wars Franchise. On this planet, he’ll make sand angles and play Mario games all day. This is a novel that is not shy to reference real-world media. The protagonist even names his new basement apartment in Repentigny “Dagoba.” And despite its dinginess, the move has an upside – a friendship with the new landlord.

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