"In a recent conversation I had with Prime Minister Harper he confessed that he has always wanted to write a book. In an hour-long, surprisingly candid interview Mr. Harper said 'If I had the time, if I wasn't busy with other... things. I'd be writing books, I think. Novels.' When pressed for more details Harper admitted that he'd always been a closet writer. Even as a boy growing up in Etobicoke [a suburb of Toronto, Ontario, Canada], when his asthma kept him from his greatest passion, hockey, he would occasionally let his imagination take him where his lungs couldn't, he said. 'I remember filling a small notebook with stories about a young kid who scores all the goals, gets hoisted onto the shoulders of his teammates—that sort of thing. The kind of guy that ends up with the most popular girl in school.'
When asked whether he sees himself ever giving up politics and pursuing his childhood passions he replied that he would consider it, possibly when he retired and had more time on his hands. 'Not the hockey, of course. That—well, that's something that should be left to professionals.'"
—Avril Täusch, Attendant News Services (France)
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"In case you haven’t heard, Yann Martel is ending his 4-year correspondence with Stephen Harper, a decidedly one-sided communication project Mr. Martel penned, What is Stephen Harper Reading? I hadn’t really followed it too much but when the end of anything is announced, I need to make sure I haven’t missed out on something really important.
Not good, thinks Mr. Martel, and he decides the private reading library of our Prime Minister needs some sprucing up. Not only does he send him a new book every couple of weeks or so, he writes him a letter providing an overview of his choice for this particular choice… like a one-sided pen pal book club. Four years and 99 books later, little wonder why we haven’t seen a book penned by Mr. Martel for quite some time given the time commitment of this endeavour."
— the dust bunny chronicles
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| From: The Globe and Mail |
"Long derided as an enemy of the book, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is now poised to publish one.
Bucking a tradition established by fellow neoconservative Mike Harris, who named the picture book Mr. Silly as his favourite work of literature, the Prime Minister’s book will purportedly contain actual text.
News of the impending publication has led to a softening of opinion toward Harper in the country’s writing community. [...]
'Finally the Prime Minister’s copyright policy is starting to make sense,' said a spokesperson for the Writers’ Union, referring to legislation currently before Parliament that critics complain will claw back writers’ rights and threaten the livelihoods of both writers and publishers. 'We all thought he had a thing against literature, but it turns out he was just trying to clear some space for himself by killing off the competition. You have to admit it’s a pretty clever strategy.'”
— Nino Ricci
Buy all of Yann Martel's books, and all the books Prime Minister Harper is reading (and writing) here...
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