Canada, home of our beloved author and last civilized place on earth, shows it's incredible taste, sophistication and intelligence by making Spook Country #2 (and rising) on it's best seller list.

quote:

TORONTO - Here are the top 10 hardcover fiction and non-fiction books in Canada compiled by Maclean's magazine.

FICTION

1 (2) A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

2 (3) Spook Country - William Gibson

3 (1) The Assassin's Song - M.J. Vassanji

4 (6) Standard of Honor - Jack Whyte

5 (8) On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

6 (-) October - Richard B. Wright

7 (5) Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje

8 (-) Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay

9 (4) Friend of the Devil - Peter Robinson

10 (9) Life Class - Pat Barker

Canada's sooo cool.

I saw that as well! Yay!

Meanwhile Spook Country is still on the New York Times Bestseller List - #34 this week.

In addition to having incredible taste, sophistication and intelligence, being home to our beloved author and the last civilized place on earth, Canada also is noted for...

quote:

-one of the only countries that can put up with Americans
-inventing Hockey
-Women in Ontario can walk around topless legally
-Canadian cities lead the world in quality of life. Vancouver (1), Toronto (3), Montreal (15). Closest American city was Atlanta at thrity-something
-Average life expectancy of a Canadian is 79 years, the highest in the world (U.S. is 75 years)
-More drinkable water in Canada then anywhere else in the world
-Canada has the lowest crime rate among major industrialized countries

Like I said before... Canada's so cool.

quote:

Originally posted by oddmanrush:Like I said before... Canada's so cool.

I saw a T-shirt online that had a picture of America as if taken from a map, on to of the corner is a baseball cap. The caption read: Canada, America's Hat!

Umm... how hard is it to move to canada from the states?

HOW TO MOVE TO CANADA: A PRIMER FOR AMERICANS

quote:

Q: What do Canadians think about Americans? Do they really want us to move there?

A: It's hard to generalize about what millions of people think. They think all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons — but it's a fact that many Canadians have American ancestors and vice versa, so we're already kissing cousins.

The United States also happens to be Canada's largest trading partner. (In 2004, 86.4 percent of Canadian exports went to the United States. In 2003, 70 percent of Canadian imports came from the United States.)

However, in spite of economic incentives to agree with United States policies on almost everything, Canada has resolutely disagreed about some very important issues. There are Canadian troops in Afghanistan, for instance, but none in Iraq.

According to a recent poll reported in the Globe and Mail, 58 per cent of Canadians consider "Americans as their closest allies, up five percentage points from last year."

Bottom line: if you decide to move to Canada, you're likely to find everything from a warm welcome to, at the very least, a polite one.

Here's one tidbit about the benefits of the great white north that I forgot to include in a earlier post on this thread...

-Canadians are 300% less likely to be murdered than Americans

Damn Spook Country has dropped to #5 on the Canadian list

quote:

FICTION

1 (1) A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

2 (6) October - Richard B. Wright

3 (9) Friend of the Devil - Peter Robinson

4 (8) Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay

5 (2) Spook Country - William Gibson

And for the first week is no longer on the NY Times Best Seller list.

Lets hope WG's appearances in Alberta give a sales boost!

Nothing to be worried about.

SC is a book that will take its time to get fully appreciated. It is more complex than previous WG books, breaks with the tradition of SciFi and touches subjects much nearer than those of PR.

Though WG kept the aura of mystery, the contours are much clearer than in PR so it is a thriller and you (the reader) feel from the beginning that you're not dealing with some esoteric target (ex.: footage) to be found/hit.

If you see the readers revisions at Amazon, you'll find some interesting things: many of them are finding the book "difficult". Many of them are just "automatically" repeating things others said... Many of them are upset because they were expecting "more of the same" (i.e., something like "Neuromancer" or, at least, akin to "Idoru" or "All Tomorrow Parties"). Many of them were expecting fantasy (in the sense of PR "footage")...

I think that most "non positive opinions" are true good news for WG: they show that he is not doing "pulp fiction" (literature that everybody read and "enjoy" but, six months later, nobody is able to say a word about that).

Yeah, WG probably won't get zillionaire with SC but he will still be regarded as top writer.

quote:

Originally posted by eRthIan:
Umm... how hard is it to move to canada from the states?

It is a nightmarish process. Be prepared to fill out much paperwork.

quote:

Originally posted by ednothing:

quote:

Originally posted by eRthIan:
Umm... how hard is it to move to canada from the states?

It is a nightmarish process. Be prepared to fill out much paperwork.

You should try it in the other direction.

quote:

Originally posted by theminx:
You should try it in the other direction.

That'll probably be in a few years for my better half.

quote:

It is a nightmarish process. Be prepared to fill out much paperwork.

I used to think that.
Then I got all the required papers and learned about the processing delays.

One year later, I'm still waiting. And it's perfectly normal.
12 to 18 months before they start asking us for the papers.

Of course, all the papers I got last year are not valid anymore, and I need them redone.

Bah.

quote:

Originally posted by oddmanrush:-Canadians are 300% less likely to be murdered than Americans

Yeah, but how much does it cost to live there?

quote:

Originally posted by Fashionpolice:
Damn Spook Country has dropped to #5 on the Canadian list

quote:

FICTION

1 (1) A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

2 (6) October - Richard B. Wright

3 (9) Friend of the Devil - Peter Robinson

4 (8) Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay

5 (2) Spook Country - William Gibson

And for the first week is no longer on the NY Times Best Seller list.

Lets hope WG's appearances in Alberta give a sales boost!

I thought it was off the list for a couple of weeks at least now. Wasn't only onthe list for two or three weeks?

quote:

Originally posted by ednothing:

quote:

Originally posted by eRthIan:
Umm... how hard is it to move to canada from the states?

It is a nightmarish process. Be prepared to fill out much paperwork.

What does one get in return?

quote:

Originally posted by ArkanGL:

quote:

It is a nightmarish process. Be prepared to fill out much paperwork.

I used to think that.
Then I got all the required papers and learned about the processing delays.

One year later, I'm still waiting. And it's perfectly normal.
12 to 18 months before they start asking us for the papers.

Of course, all the papers I got last year are not valid anymore, and I need them redone.

Bah.

You're going to move from Paris to Canada?

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
What does one get in return?

A permanent resident card. I get to pay more money and take a test after three years if I want to be a citizen.

I should just start a new thread or something detailing the awesome experience that is applying for permanent resident status (family class) in Canada.

quote:

Originally posted by ednothing:

quote:

Originally posted by UberDog:
What does one get in return?

A permanent resident card. I get to pay more money and take a test after three years if I want to be a citizen.

I should just start a new thread or something detailing the awesome experience that is applying for permanent resident status (family class) in Canada.

No, I mean, what are the benfits to living in canada? Is there a lower cost of living, the wilderness, et. al. Why are you moving there?

I like the weather. I looked up Alaska and in some cases it's more expensive there than in Chicago. What the hell, people? I don't care if shipping is harder it's cold and there a lots of mosquitos, I want a discount!

Guess it's back to looking into Thailand.