The 49th Shelf, a great website devoted to all books Canadian, has started a wonderful project called “Read Local : The 100-Mile Book Diet”. It’s a little different than eating only foods within a 100-mile radius (you don’t have to read books written about Lanark County, for example), but it is aiming to document Canadian books on a fun map.
So, how does it work? You sign up for the website and then mark the position on their virtual map of any book that uses a Canadian location in its pages. For example, read something recently that took place in Halifax, Nova Scotia? Drop by the map and mark the position with a tag. If it is already there, you’ll add your book to the others. ( So far, there are 4 books noted within the Halifax limits.) It allows you to name the book so that duplications don’t take place, and even lets you make comments about certain books, tag the books with metatags for different search options and even post your reads on Facebook and Twitter.
This is an interesting project and it’ll be fun to see how it evolves. Take a few minutes to drop by your favourite Canadian destinations to see if any books have been written about them!
