As a Western Canadian, this was the perfect book for me to read in order to meet more Canadian authors. I already know a lot about Robertson Davies, Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, Matt Cohen, Margaret Lawrence, and a few other really famous ones.
But recently I have started to take out books by other Canadian authors from the library. While reading the book above, I felt that I had a lucky chance to spend 2 or 3 minutes, or as long as I wanted to if I so chose, to meet 50 or 70 articulate authors that are literally around the corner or down the street from where I live. Now I just have to actually read some of their published works to make the experience complete.
Of course the large format makes it very easy to see the facial details of each author. Reading their stories about how they started reading and writing, mostly at a very young age, inspired me because I identify with them as a biblioholic as long as I can remember.
I received a flyer recently in the mail from the University of Alberta Press. It mentioned a number of new publications relating to literature specifically. I highly recommend their books at
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/