Coupland

Have you ever looked for tangible ways to keep someone close when you're missing them? Greg's currently off on a mini holiday to attend a friend's wedding in New Hampshire, and the apartment's super quiet without him around.  While wedding festivities are unfolding and Greg and Kanti (the groom) are recalling their days at Acadia, I snatched one of Greg's novels off our bookshelf to get a glimpse into his 'pleasure' reading preferences. 

To elaborate, at any given time I might be found reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food (more about that in a later post) or Sophie Kinsella's Can You Keep a Secret or Pat Foran's (of CTV fame!) The Smart Canadian's Guide to Saving Money (which may or may have not been a Valentine's Day present from Sir Gregory). I might also fall asleep while catching up on the latest issue of Real Simple or Canadian House and Home. 

While I'm following whim and avoiding any bedtime reads that cover the politics, administration and governance that occupies my workday, Greg's spending the last minutes of his day reading the likes of Carl Schmitt's Constitutional Theory and Franz L. Neumann and Otto Kirchheimer's The Rule of Law Under Siege (seriously, these are the books stacked on the floor next to his side of the bed). While I do understand that the many years of a PhD leaves one accustomed to filling their spare time with the consumption of such texts, I'm intrigued (and puzzled) that after editing and directing research all day long on constitutional matters, Greg doesn't long for the escape and reprieve that comes from indulging in something completely different. 

Though I'm not about to excitedly turn the pages of Susan Delacourt's United We Fall: In Search of a New Canada (the book Greg has a bookmark stuck in on our desk) before turning off the bedside lamp, I am quite enjoying Greg's copy of Douglas Coupland's The Gum Thief. In fact, I'm adding JPod to my next must read book; I'm not quite sure how I've missed Coupland until this point. I'm impressed that this is the novel Greg turns to when he finally longs for fiction... even if it was a present from his mother.  

If you're curious about the novel, view Coupland's video here.