The focus of the festival is Canadian writers, of course, and they were given the spotlight. While many tents were for major publishing corporations from across North America, the tables were mostly covered in Canadian novels and new writers. The staff members were exceedingly helpful, having read nearly every book they were selling.

Virtually anybody could find something in the park to pique their interest. The remarkable kid's forum handed out balloons while providing parents with cheap, colourful books that could keep their young ones entertained and off the computer. The likewise remarkable array of reading tents boasted aspiring Canadian authors from all lots of life. The Pride tent had a full schedule of short story writers and novelists sampling their recent publications, while well-known writers for the Toronto Star held a panel discussion on sports and international affairs.

A stroll through the for-sale booths proved fruitful for many, as men and women toted shopping bags heavily laden with purchases. Everything from five-dollar novellas to fifty-dollar hard covers practically flew from the tables.

Magazines were a big feature, taking over an entire block of the park. Major publishers like Rogers sold subscriptions for practically nothing. Magazines like Elle, Seventeen, Canadian Living, and Home and Gardening were a big hit.

More intimately, many organizations were making their presence heard, with the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression taking donations and informing patrons of the journalists killed annually. Various religious organizations boasted their wares alongside poetry clubs and female literacy organizations, as well.

Not only were the books and magazines in abundance, there was a fantastic array of food available that bore a striking resemblance to a county fair or theme park. While there were mouth-watering smells wafting from corn-on-the-cob stands and funnel cake machines, the hit happened to be the Malaysian Murtabak stand.

Murtabak is an ethnic food resembling a crepe, but filled with curried meats and veggies. It tasted like a samosa and a crepe stuck together, and went deliciously with a hot chilli or coconut dipping sauce. Eight dollars bought one plateful, which was filling and perfectly spicy.

Entertainment abounded, as well, with a full stage erected in the middle of the park. Musicians and children's entertainment was scheduled throughout the day.
Word on the Street is always a grand success, but with the sun cooperating with the atmosphere, one couldn't help but have a perpetual smile plastered on their face.

Set in the tiny fictional village of Macondo, this novel portrays the rise and fall of the Buendia family. It takes the reader towards a journey of 100 years of rich family and cultural history. The author is a master of telling the story from different vantage points. Although the timeframe for the novel extends to well over a century, the events are not told chronologically but from different angles and time periods. The author is a Nobel Prize winner.

Midnight's Children (by Salman Rushdie)

This novel won both the Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981. It is the only novel written by an Indian author that got on Time magazine's list of top 100 best English language novels in a span of 50 years. The credentials of this book should speak for themselves.

Breathing Lessons (by Anne Tyler)

"Breathing Lessons" won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1989. It is a story that tells the reality of married life and midlife crisis. One of the best modern literary artists, Anne Tyler also authored works such as Earthly Possessions and The Accidental Tourist. All those mentioned titles became smash hits.

Rabbit Is Rich (by John Updike)

This novel is the third part of Updike's "Rabbit series". Rabbit Is Rich was the lucky episode in the series that won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1982. The story is about a former high school basketball star who now faces the challenges of modern society, ever struggling with various factors such as his wife's alcoholism, his uncontrolled libido, his son's misbehaviour, and dark memories from his past.

White Noise (by Don Delillo)

This novel is one of the best examples of postmodern literature. In fact, it is a standard "textbook" for college students taking up literature, primarily discussing postmodernism. Don Delillo's eighth novel, White Noise won the National Book Award in 1985. Film makers also attempted to release a film adaptation of the novel in 2006, but did not fully materialize.

Catch 22 (by Joseph Heller)

Considered as one of the greatest literary works in the post World War era, Catch 22 gained massive acclaim when it was first released in 1961. Today, it is a favorite among famous literary circles and subject of study for avid students of literature, sociology and politics. The story was set during the late stages of World War 2, focusing on a handful of U.S. air force soldiers. The novel is full of satire, political and social criticism, as well as many equally strong underlying themes. Disturbing, humorous, and witty to a full scale extent, this novel is definitely a must read!

Everything That Rises Must Converge (by Flannery O' Connor)

Unlike the other works mentioned here, this work is not a novel but a short story collection. It is, however, considered as an individual literary piece. "Everything That Rises Must Converge" is in fact the first short story in a collection of nine, thereby earning the title for the whole work. The author wrote these short stories during a long period of illness, and were published after her death. She writes with supreme taste, style, and technicality; the readers often find themselves grasping for and holding on to every word.

Poison Ivy

 

Sure this choice may seem peculiar at first, but just let the logic simmer for a minute. As a male, what could be more terrifying then a beautiful woman coming onto you only to poison you with her deadly chemicals? Besides simply being a metaphor for women in general, this actually happened when an "attractive girl" named Patches seduced a couple of men in a Los Angeles parking lot and used a poisonous cologne to screw with them. Their symptoms included dizziness, shortness of breath, numbness in their extremities, and it also rendered them unconscious! How much does that suck? Poor guys. Perhaps the strangest part of this is the fact that the cops were unable to determine a motive. Upon further realization however that this is a woman we are dealing with, maybe it's not so strange after all.

The Penguin

For Mr. Cobblepot, I'm going to ask that you focus less on his physical gimmicks and more on his actions and what makes him a criminal. The Penguin is often depicted as a psychopathic mass murderer who kills with no regard. He is a master criminal strategist who uses his cunning intellect to gain wealth and power throughout Gotham City. He is also the man who plans the crimes, but usually does not physically commit them. A large reason Cobblepot is such an interesting character in Batman's rogues gallery is that he is one of the only sane criminals Batman deals with. With Penguin considering himself a gentleman, his interactions with Batman are usually very civilized and different from other criminals. And like most real-world criminals, Cobblepot basically just wants to be rich and realized that he was good at crime. Now if any of these characteristics sound familiar, it's because the Penguin is basically a real life mob boss akin to the likes of Al Capone. Here are some facts about Capone that could plausibly fit into any Penguin origin story.

• Al Capone left school at 14 because he punched a teacher.
• As a bouncer at a Brooklyn club, Capone got in a fight with a man who fucked him up. He later hired the guy as his bodyguard.
• After an assassination attempt on his rival failed, Capone had himself put in prison for a year which helped him successfully avoid any of the backlash.
• Capone murdered a lot of people, he bought cops by the precinct, he bootlegged liquor, and he personally ran Chicago like the Penguin ran Gotham at one point.
• Capone acted as a gentleman to the public, he was a ruthless leader, and he lead with style.

Lex Luthor

One of pop culture's most iconic villains, Luthor sure has the credentials to back it up. After moving to Metropolis at the tender age of 21, Luthor received his Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in addition to starting LexCorp; the company that would eventually become the world's largest defense and software firm. With his vast amount of wealth and intellect, Luthor is also a master inventor and has developed many gadgets involved in space travel and for fighting the Man of Steel. For example, he once cured cancer simply to earn Superman's trust before predictably backstabbing him once again. As if all of this wasn't enough, Luthor can also add President of the United States of America to his resume although his term only lasted for one year.

With these kind of characteristics, it's almost impossible to compare Luthor to a single person in our world, so I'm going to compare him to the George W. Bush regime of the United States. With the same unlimited wealth, intelligence, and righteous attitude towards the world, their similarities are uncanny. The regime even employs the same fear politics towards the Middle East that Luthor uses on Superman; to represent him as a dangerous and uncontrollable entity. Michael Caine once said that America views itself as Superman, while the rest of the world views it as Batman. I believe the more accurate comparison is Lex Luthor.

Ozymandias

Hailing from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' masterpiece, The Watchmen, Adrian Veidt is perhaps the best exploration of the psyche of a dictator ever written in comic book history. While he shares similarities with Luthor in that they are both master strategists, mind-numbing geniuses, and ridiculously wealthy, Veidt has no counterpart which drives his motivation. Instead, he believes himself to have no counterpart and he is convinced that his ideas of how to run the world are the only right ones. He doesn't consider himself the "smartest man in the world" for no reason. In fact, the most unsettling thing about the Watchmen is that somewhere deep inside all of us, we realize that Veidt's plan for a unified world almost makes sense. Now kids, when was the last time a man in an unchallengeable position of power convinced a bunch of people to do crazy shit and believed that he was doing something good for the world? And no, I'm not talking about Will Smith inexplicably convincing thousands of people to hand over their hard-earned money to watch Hancock.

The Joker

And of course, how could this list be complete without arguably the greatest comic book villain of all time. While there have been countless interpretations of him, the version that has garnered the most popularity is that of the mass-murdering, anarchistic, psychopathic maniac who makes bad jokes at inappropriate times and has no motives but to make Batman's life a living hell. Now who in our real world could possibly be that crazy? How about Joseph Konopka a.k.a. Dr. Chaos? If you are thinking that Dr. Chaos is an unbelievably trite and ridiculous name, you are certainly correct. But I guess Chaos was just trying to be direct and to-the-point with his self-appointed name which is certainly ironic.

While Dr. Chaos is currently looking at 21 years in prison, he had his run as a notorious supervillain. After becoming Dr. Chaos, he designated himself leader of the "Realm of Chaos", the group he formed out of bored kids in the neighborhood for the sole purpose of fucking shit up because let's face it; what kind of supervillain would Chaos be without henchmen? A list of Chaos' "accomplishments" include everything from selling warez to damaging television towers, power plants, disabling air traffic control systems, and even setting places on fire and knocked out power in 50 separate acts which resulted in power loss for more than 30,000 users! If this guy just happened to wear clown make-up and had a better name, I think we all would be a lot more terrified.

Of course, I did not descend into book junkiedom all by myself. There were plenty of enablers and other co-dependents all too willing to hustle me along. The chief among these were not, as you might expect, Amazon, although it had, as we shall see, a lot to do with it, but the people who created a software application, Book Collector. (Full disclosure: I have no ties, financial or otherwise with these people. Hell, I don't even know where they live.) I have tried more than my share of applications designed to help one keep track of one's books -- including a piece of software I bought several years ago that bore the imprimatur of the New York Public Library -- but none as seductive and so reasonably priced as this product of some outfit that calls itself Collectorz.com.

Book Collector wants to persuade one that it gives one full control over one's entire collection; and so it does, but at a cost. Suppose that you were just starting to assemble a library. You buy, let's say, a dozen books or so. You want to start a catalogue just to keep track of things. With a bar code scanner -- available, unsurprisingly, from Book Collector, also at a modest price -- you need only swipe the bar code that appears on the jacket of every book nowadays and Book Collector will check, online, the book's ISBN number with whatever database, or bases, you designate -- Amazon, Library of Congress, Powell's, you name it -- and, in an instant, return more information about the book -- unless one is a book dealer -- than one likely will need.

The data that shows up on your screen includes an image of the book's jacket -- when available -- together with the publisher's notes about the book, plus product details such as the date of publication, number of pages, the format, Dewey Decimal number, LOC classification, height and width; whatever. One can add notes and "Personal Details" such as tags -- categories, some provided, some the user designates -- and other details of one's choosing, such as where to find the book in one's library. One can print the details of a single book, selected books, or a catalogue of the entire collection, arrayed by title, author, or whatever. The catalog converts easily to a form that is suitable for shooting into cyberspace, where, as if it is in a virtual book bin, anyone may pick through your collection.

What can be wrong with all of that? Just this: imagine that, emboldened by the ease of adding to your collection, you expand it to say six dozen books. Ordinarily, you would now feel constrained by the cost of shelving, the need to organize your books in some fashion, and the blank spaces on the shelves you would have to leave open in order to keep moving books to make room for new books in their place. Book Collector can't do anything about the cost of shelving. It does, however, let you shelve your books completely at random, so that as one shelf fills up, you move down to the next, without gaps. All of the sorting and organizing is done within Book Collector.

Let's say you wish to catalogue a biography of, say, Alexander Hamilton. With BC you can cross-tag the book under several headings -- economics, public policy, colonial history, as well as biography -- gather the title in a folder, and take down the ones you need for whatever strikes your interest at the moment . As part of my catalog I tell book collector where to find a book by telling it the number of the bookcase in which I have shelved the book, together with the number of the shelf within that bookcase. (The bookcases needn't be side to side, obviously, nor even in the same room, so long as that each bookcase has been assigned a number.) And finally, BC makes it a cinch to track books you are foolish enough to lend to people. You just enter the date, the name of the borrower, and, at your discretion, when you'd like to have it back.

BC gave me the feeling that no matter how many books I had, I could control my habit; this was wrong but sustainable -- until the day that I hooked up with Amazon. Until that time, I could see in my emptying wallet or bank account the real cost that my habit exacted. Plus I might read a review, get excited, but, by the time I could reach a genuine bookstore my enthusiasm might have cooled enough so that I thought to first give the library a try. Now, I to live in a world in which the time of the impulse to buy until the time I act on it is cut to the time it takes to enter a few keystrokes on my computer. No sales tax, and no shipping either -- so long as I can find yet another book to reach the magic figure for free shipping. By the end of the month the impulse cost has been buried among so many had-to-haves, software being the most pronounced among them, that I would scarcely notice a few books among the detritus of costly wants.

The bald fact is that in the past year I have read more books borrowed from the public library (The fact that ours is kept well stocked only makes matters worse.) than I have books from my own shelves. So why am I keeping all those books? Some I keep because I still entertain the hope, against all odds, that I someday will read them: the two volume collection of Lewis and Clark's letters for example. Jan Gullberg's Mathematics from the Birth of Numbers, for another; Strand and Boland's The Making of a Poem for yet another. Good lord! Then there are the slipcases full of books from the estimable Library of America. The eye catches too many for which there is not enough time remaining. Hope may spring eternal, but confidence, which is hope applied, does not.

Then there are the face-the-facts books for which there is too little time even in the best of circumstances. Such as the four volumes of George Orwell' collected essays, the four volumes of Addison and Steels' Spectator, the Fagles Homer and Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote, not to mention the D'Arcy Thompson's On Growth and Form. The whole of Montaigne lies neglected as does - may as well admit it - Darwin's Origin. And lastly, the what-in-the-hell-did-ever-you-have-in mind? books for which I can't for the life of me reconstruct whatever led me to shell out good money for such titles as A Perfect Mess or The Most Famous Man in America. These are few, relatively, and, having little hold on my sentiment, the easiest to dispose of. As a class, they seem also to be the most in demand by dealers in used books. What that says about my taste in books. . .well, let's just not go there.

So much for culling the collection. The next step can be wrenching depending upon how close you are to your collection. It involves three steps. The first step is to offer your books to people who have shown interest in your collection -- grandchildren come to mind -- but in the end, it is remarkable how little they care about owning any of your books. The second step is to list with Amazon the titles you would most like to keep and therefore, you tell yourself, might have the highest resale value. The fact that the market places a much lower value on your books than you would have suspected ought not to discourage you; at least you will get something back for the books you sell, and you can console yourself with the thought that you have placed the book with someone who will appreciate having it.

Now comes the tough part. Reason would dictate that the residue from steps one and two should be donated to your library where it will be put on sale to patrons, the proceeds going to the library. This is like scattering to the wind titles that you at one time swore you would read and to which you might even have formed an attachment of some sort. Who knows in whose hands they will end up? Dry your eyes and release them. Now for that 1,347 pile of books.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This is one of my all time favorite books. It encompasses a family's struggle for survival by trying to remember their history. The isolated town of Macondo, founded by the Buendias, eventually falls prey to the introduction of other neighboring towns. The lives of the Buendias bring births, deaths, marriages, and love affairs. In the course of a hundred years, we see the changes that began with Macondo being isolated and ending with the erasure of the Buendia family and the town.

Sophie's Choice by William Styron

The novel revolves around the friendship of Stingo, an aspiring writer, Nathan Landau, and his lover Sophie. Upon moving into a building in Brooklyn, Stingo quickly befriends Nathan and Sophie, who is a survivor of the concentration camps of World War II. Nathan and Sophie have a turbulent relationship mainly because Nathan is schizophrenic. The story progresses with Sophie telling Stingo of her turbulent past and a decision that will ultimately lead to tragedy.

Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov

This book is intriguing, witty, yet disturbing. Nobokov nearly burnt the book halfway through writing it because of the scandalous material. The book deals with Humbert Humbert's pedophiliac obsession with a young girl, Dolores Haze. It's written in a way to keep you engaged, but so alarming, you're not quite sure what to make of it.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

While the movie was portrayed very well, the book is substantially better. It is a story about inmates in a mental institution. The narrator of the story, Chief, tells accounts of the happenings inside the institution. Through his eyes we get a sense of the inhumane treatment of patients. Kesey actually worked in a mental ward while writing this story, which gave the story a base for being able to see what took place inside these types of institutions.

A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Like a Shakespearian love story, this one ends in tragedy. It is told through the voice of Lieutenant Frederic Henry during World War II. Henry meets Catherine Barkley, a nurse's aid, and a romance blossoms between the two. Despite the war, a capture by police, and an escape, Henry manages to find his way back to his beloved Catherine where they escape to Switzerland. But their happiness together are abruptly cut short.

Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy

This book disturbed me for a few days after reading it. Jude Fawley is a young man who wishes to one day become a scholar at Christminster. Instead Arabella Donn manipulates him into marriage. After his failed marriage, Jude moves to Christminster, where he falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead. She ends up marrying another man, but soon realizes she is unhappy and leaves him for Jude. They end up having children out of wedlock, and tragedy ensues. This book was considered so scandalous, that it was publicly burned in 1895. Hardy never wrote novels again, and stuck mainly to writing poetry thereafter.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

This is a novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It deals with Okonkwo of the Igbo tribe in the clan of Umuofia. Okonkwo rose to a high stature proving that one can become a great person if you strive to overcome your hardships. He tries hard to live by his custom that man is master of his own destiny, only to be proven wrong.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

I loved this book as a kid. The idea of being on an island without adult supervision was a great thought. But what happens to those kids when chaos becomes their way of life? Without guidance and structure, society inherently returns to savagery, all hell breaks lose, and childhood innocence is lost.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Alex is a teenage monster who speaks a special nadsat. He and his band of droogs (hoodlum buddies) love running amok on the town. Eventually Alex is caught by authorities and made an example of through Reclamation Treatment. He is then conditioned to hate the sight of violence or the sound of his beloved Beethoven. But the experiment fails because what is good without a bit of evil?

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

If you can get past the fact that this book is 1200 pages long, then it is well worth the read. Jean Valjean is an escaped convict who can't escape his past. He manages to make good with his life by changing his name and becoming a wealthy factory worker. He saves the daughter of one of his factory workers, and assumes the role of being father to the child. As Cossette becomes a young lady, she falls in love with a student named Marius during the Paris uprisings. This is a wonderful novel, and Hugo weaves his words with such poeticism.

Like its predecessor Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan continues his grand vision of grounding the world renowned character in a 'gritty realism' that, as it did with Batman Begins, will attract a new audience to the Gotham Knight's long history of published works. Provided here is a list of some of the more popular trade paperbacks surrounding the Caped Crusader, including those who inspired this exciting new franchise.

Batman: Year One

Story by Frank Miller
Illustrated by David Mazzucchelli
Colored by Richmond Lewis

The quintessential Batman story, written by Miller in 1986 details the rise of Gotham's original crime fighting team: James Gordon and Batman. In Year One, Miller strays from previous Gothic interpretations of Gotham City and returns it to its New York City based roots. Rife with corruption, these men seek to clean up "a city that likes being dirty." Though Batman Begins strays from this story to stand on its own, Gary Oldman's performance of James Gordon is literally Mazzucchelli's artwork leaping off the page. Also look for a interesting interpretation of Catwoman.

The Long Halloween

Story by Jeph Loeb
Illustrated by Tim Sale
Colored by Gregory Wright

This grand narrative by Jeph Loeb serves as a thrilling murder mystery as well as an unforgettable reinterpretation of the rise of Two Face. When consulted on which stories serve as the inspiration for the new image of Batman, David S. Goyer responded with The Long Halloween, much to the acclaim of fans everywhere. Look here for parallels of Harvey Dent's rise and fall in The Dark Knight.

Dark Victory

Story by Jeph Loeb
Illustrated by Tim Sale

The follow up to The Long Halloween, this story details the end of the established crime families of Gotham City as well as the rise of a young Boy Wonder, Dick Grayson. When cops and politicians, all who have a strange connection to Harvey Dent, begin to be killed, Gotham is thrown into another serial killer's grasp. Having lost a great ally in Harvey Dent, who can Batman afford to trust?

The Dark Knight Returns

Story by Frank Miller
Illustrated by Klaus Jason and Lynn Varley

First written in 1986 and published as four different issues, this trade paperback brings together the story widely attributed with returning Batman to his roots in realism and the inspiration for the Batman movie franchise. Ten years after the last sighting of Batman, a retired Bruce Wayne watches as Gotham City lowers itself to the brink of lawlessness. Unable to fight his inner demons any longer, Bruce dons the cape and cowl once again-but is this new generation prepared to accept Batman's methods? This critically acclaimed work is a breathtaking conclusion to the legend as well as a chilling social commentary of the 1980s.

Hush Vol. 1 & 2

Story by Jeph Loeb
Illustrated by Jim Lee

What happens when you take two of the greatest talents in the comic book industry and give them full control of the Batman monthly flagship comic? Damn good storytelling. Set at the height of Batman's career, someone is teaching his enemies new tactics and methods which threatens to tear down everything Batman and Bruce Wayne has ever known. A griping story set to Jim Lee's amazing artwork, Hush proved to be every bit worth the hype, if only for the controversy raised.

The Full Burn by Kevin Conley ($25.99)

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Scratch your itch for adventure travel with this true tale of some real fall guys, and get a lesson in the business of jumping from tall buildings and rolling brand new cars.

Tuna: A Love Story by Richard Ellis ($27.95)

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Meet the entrepreneurs behind your tuna hand roll. From “ranch” to fish market, tuna harvesting is a complex global business populated by charismatic business owners.

Serve The People: A Stir Fried Journey Through China by Jen Lin-Liu ($24)

Chinese cuisine has enjoyed a rebirth in China, thanks in large part of the rise of small businesses after Mao. Lin-Liu serves up a delightful dish of experience in a Beijing cooking school, plus a helping of the country's social and cultural history.

Heirloom: Notes From an Accidental Tomato Farmer by Tim Stark ($24)

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What Stark began as a lark - 3,000 heirloom tomato seeds started in a Brooklyn apartment-has become a thriving business that supplies scores of Manhattan restaurants. It is a satisfying journey that began long before “local sourcing” was a buzzword.

Now moving on to the best coffee machines that you could buy and happily put it in your kitchen.

Illy X6 Trio ($500)

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It resembles a cute critter from a Pixar movie, but the X6 is surprisingly high maintenance. The manual specifies spring water and an additional milk container. The steam wand will make you feel like a real barista. If you prefer a lot of individual style (and foam) in your latte, this is the machine for you.

Delonghi Nespresso ($699)

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This intimidating model, in red or chrome, is almost too sexy for any kitchen counter. It boasts many flavors and a detachable unit for milk heating. But with its clunky brewing process, large frame, and inconveniently narrow cup holder the Nespresso left me unimpressed.

Braun Tassimo ($169)

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This is my personal favorite and I own this one. It is a classy model that looks like a spaceship but has a compact physique. It offers nine coffee brands. I greatly appreciate its one-touch approach. The pods contain both coffee and milk, which takes the guesswork (and risk of getting burned) out of your hands if you are not being careful.

Salman Rushdie

An Indian-British novelist and essayist, he shot to fame with his second book Midnights Children(1981).The Indian subcontinent has always been an integral subject of his works and his predominant theme of “magical realism” has always been juxtaposed with the flavors of this Land. Rushdie's other critically acclaimed stories like “Shalimar the Clown”, “The moors last sigh” and “fury” have left an indelible mark largely due to their strongly resonating multi-cultural concerns.

“The Satanic Verses”(1988) his rather stirring fourth novel dotted with internecine threads aroused the wrath of Muslims around the world leading Iran's Ayotollah Khomeini to release a fatwa in 1989 against the author. Rushdie sought asylum in the UK , writing with renewed vigor, his name still on the “wanted list”.

Arundhati Roy

 

Booker Prize winner Indian novelist and activist , Arundhati Roy won laurels for her first book “God of Small Things”(2002) which is to a large extent an autobiographical account of her childhood experiences in Ayenemen. The book also ranked fourth on the New York Bestseller list of Independent fiction and rights to the book were sold to 21 countries.

Arundhati Roy since then has conspicuously lent her voice to bring to the forefront numerous social issues in India. A vehement opposer of Globalisation and Neo-Imperialism she has successfully represented the interest of the masses in a number of socially significant issues. This marked the beginning of a second era where commercial success radically changed perceptions on Indian writers.

Vikram Seth:

 

Born in the city of Kolkatta, Vikram Seth is a man of many languages and an astute businessman. His 1471 page second novel “A Suitable Boy”(1993) brimming with the lives of the Indian diaspora received mixed reviews from critics worldover.

His third Novel” An Equal Music”(1999) based on the lives of classical musicians in Europe was a somber ode to the musicians and their music that transports to the surreal world. His writings have ascertained the tenacious grip of Indian authors and he continues to inspire young writers looking to spin a new world.

V.S Naipaul

 

One of the most enduring figures in English Literature, Noble Laureate VS Naipaul has produced a motley of soul- stirring novels like “A house for Mr Biswas” and “India:A wounded Civilisation. He became the first writer of Indian origin to win the Booker prize for his work “In a Free State” and has since then been praised for his self-constructive narrative. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 that successfully established his authoritative regime in the world of literature.

Naipaul has also stirred controversy with his strong views on rapidly developing nations like India and issues like Muslim fundamentalism. Undaunted he continues to be the epicenter of literary development even today.

Rohinton Mistry

Born in the Indian city of Mumbai, Rohinton Mistry moved to settle in Canada where he wrote is first novel “One Sunday”(1983) which won the annual contributors award from the Canadian fiction magazine. One of his early novels “Such a Long Journey” won the commonwealth writers prize while “A Fine balance” was shortlisted for the Bookers Prize.

Mistry's works are a reservoir of human emotions that rise above circumstance or condition . His characters are profound extensions of simplistic love and he dwells in the ordinary only to transform into the extra-ordinary.

Here are only 5 of Canada's most popular and in some cases the oldest magazines that have managed to remain in circulation over the years.

Chatelaine Magazine

For those of you who don't know, Chatelaine Magazine is a women's lifestyle magazine that was first published monthly by Rogers Media Inc in March 1928. The magazine and now website covers a variety of women's interests from fashion, beauty and décor, to current affairs, health and food.

Through out the years there have been many changes but the magazine stayed strong and produced quality content which helped it get where it is today and kept their customers and readers happy. Chatelaine Magazine celebrated its 80thanniversary in May 2008.

Maclean's Magazine

Alright most people who have walked by a magazine stand or shelf has seen Maclean's Magazine which is a highly popular Canadian magazine. The magazine was first founded in 1905 by 43 year old Toronto journalist/entrepreneur John Bayne Maclean.

The original name of the magazine when it was first published was the “Business Magazine” until 1911 when John changed it to his last name “Maclean's”.

Today Maclean's Magazine remains one of Canada's leading sources of news and information.

Flare Magazine

Flare was originally known as “Miss Chatelaine” until 1979 when the owners decided to re-invent the magazine and it officially became Flare.

Flare has labeled itself as “Canada's Fashion Magazine” which tries to focus on Canadian content and people. 2008 marked Flare Magazines 28thyear in circulation with no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Owl Magazine

This magazine has to be one of Canada's greatest children's magazines along with its spin off's Chickadee and Chirp.

When I was a child I use to love this magazine and the Owl TV show that was released in 1985 and ended in 1995. In my personal opinion this was an interesting and informative magazine for children with lots to learn and do within its pages.

To this day Owl Magazine, Chickadee and Chirp which are all the part of the same company, are the most popular Canadian magazines for children.

Faze Magazine

Faze is a Canadian based magazine aimed at the teens and young adults. The magazine covers a wide variety of topics like style, real life stories, humor, health and music which is their biggest component. Faze is popular with females between the ages of 12 and 19 and has been since it first started publishing in 1999.

Faze is the largest teen magazine in Canada which aims to be an intelligent, positive magazine for teens and young adults.

That's Canada's top 5 most popular magazines. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of Canadian magazines in circulation but in my opinion these are the best 5.