I recently took a trip to Toronto for the announcement of Canada Reads which I am participating in this year. On the trip I met the other panelists and got to announce the book I had chosen to champion: The Cure For Drowning by Loghan Paylor.
The CBC books team who run Canada Reads first reached out a few years ago, but I kept saying no. Too big of a commitment, too much time, too hard to plan for, book around (I really had a lot of excuses). Even last year, when our schedule was relatively calm, I turned it down because I wanted a full year out of the spotlight. As 2026 crept closer, I caved. I love books and I love reading, and I want to be apart of encouraging more of that, so…I am doing it!
For anyone who doesn’t know, Canada Reads is a debate show where five panelists each champion a book by a Canadian author. Over several days, one book is voted out at the end of each episode until a winner is chosen. Even if your book is eliminated, you stay and keep debating, knocking out the other books until one is left standing. It’s competitive, public, and nerve-wracking, which is part of why I resisted for so long.
Another reason is that Sara did it years ago. She was on Canada Reads in 2011, championing Essex County by Jeff Lemire. At that point in our career we rarely did things on our own, so watching her agree to go solo felt wild and honestly kind of terrifying. If I’m being honest, I don’t remember watching. Too nervous.
She showed up with her Demi Moore in Ghost bowl cut and soft leather jacket and was voted out in the first round. The Canadian media dubbed her a “kingmaker” because of how influential she was over the course of the week. But what stayed with me was that she found it very stressful, and she worried she’d failed the author. There was no way I was going to do that!
But here I am…doing it.
Last year, after a number of calls about my favorite types of books, The Canada Reads team sent me my first box of books to read. It was extremely exciting. Although I’ve been a musician for more than 30 years, I don’t collect gear or memorabilia. You’d be hard-pressed to figure out I’m a musician if you toured my place without me in it. But I love books. They’re on display in every room and are the one thing I insist on collecting, to the chagrin of my partner Sofia, who is desperate for me to let go of the stacks spreading over every surface of our house.
The Cure for Drowning by Logan Paylor, the book I chose to champion, was the first or second book I read. Eventually I went on to read 17 books by Canadian authors, but The Cure for Drowning just stuck with me. It’s a beautiful, sprawling historical novel with family at its center. There’s a love story, a love triangle, war, death, and so much longing. Historical fiction can be dense and hard to get into, and it’s not everyone’s genre, but I think this book will be accessible to just about anyone who picks it up. Logan is a first-time author and deserves all the praise the book has received so far. I just hope I do it justice when I champion it in April.
I’ve now finished reading the four other Canada Reads books this year. I enjoyed them immensely. That was one of my reservations about doing Canada Reads. Art is subjective. My favorite book won’t be your favorite book, but that doesn’t mean mine is better than yours. I was honest with the producers that I struggled to imagine myself being competitive. I’m struggling to imagine how to knock out the other books, especially since they are all being championed by the sweetest people I’ve ever met. But I’ve been reassured that once the debates begin, your competitiveness comes out. I sure hope so.
I’m glad I agreed to do Canada Reads. I love reading, and I hope that whatever attention I bring to Canada Reads and The Cure For Drowning, encourages people to pick up more books. To me, reading is a passport to wherever you want to go. An inexpensive way to explore other worlds, cultures, people, and ideas.
I encourage you to pick up the five books chosen for Canada Reads this year so you can follow along during the debates in April. Let me know in the comments which is your favorite or just tell me what your favorite book is!
Happy reading,
TRQ Reads Too
Hi Tegan! I read The Cure for Drowning and I enjoyed it a lot! Or rather, I listened to the audio book. I already recommended it to so many people. This year I decided to only read books that I already had at home before purchasing anything new, so I didn't plan to read the ones from the Canada Reads selection, but I realized I had 1 credit left in my Audible account... lucky me! Especially because one of my favourite subjects is the 2nd World War. My favourite book is The Book Thief, have you read it? It's also during the war. Good luck on the debate!!
Best of luck, Tegan! I actually read Essex County because of Sara and really enjoyed it :)
Currently revisiting Springsteen’s Born to Run memoir. Just hoping to score some tour tickets…