101 Letters to a Prime Minister: The Complete Letters to Stephen Harper

I enjoyed this book .. a lot in the beginning but as I went along, there were a few things that the author says which irritated me a bit.First, I want to talk about the good in this book. Martel has done a masterful job of letter writing. One can get a hint of the kind of prose and words he has used for the Life of Pi (which I have not read). His books are well selected and though I have not read most of them, I do know from other avid readers that his choice is very well balanced and highly literary.Now on to the things that somewhat bothered me. Though he never came out and said it, I always felt that he thinks that the arts deserve more attention than the hard sciences. There is this hidden contempt for the non artsy stuff that permeates his letters and though hard to pin point (since he does not expressly state it), I could not shake the feeling that he is dealing with a form of literary elitism.The 4 stars are an average of the 5 stars for content and 3 stars for his subtle put down of anything non artsy.This book will be on my shelf for future reference and to help me figure out what I want to buy next.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading Martel's letters on books and reading to his prime minister! I am dazed by the amount of effort and depth of thought Martel put to the task. The collection provides a wonderful overview of a wide range of literature--both Canadian and global. My favorite snippets were about the joys of reading itself:"When you are reading, your guard needn't be up. You can be entirely yourself.... All the noise and confusion of the outer world falls away, is blocked off, when one is reading and one becomes still."Wonderful, inspiring read!

worth reading, since the website is now down. A great way to get a quick summary of a wide range of reading: concise and interesting

loved it

Excellent and entertaining..Stehen Harper lost out!!

Yann Martel is coming to speak at our school, so I wanted to read his 'other' works, not just Pi (which I have read multiple times) and thus I came across this witty piece. Perhaps serendipitously, I read it in the week following the Canadian federal election in which Mr. Harper was defrocked from office, to be replaced by the eclectic reader and son of the late Pierre and still loving Margaret, Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister designate, with a Liberal majority. This book is a witty, ironic, well-versed, engaging survey of a life in reading. I am a reader and a writer. This is a 'best of' book: a truly laugh-out-loud and deeply moving delight. I can hardly believe that Mr. Harper never responded to Martel's letters. Unlike Mr. Obama, who didn't have to. Oh, wait, yes I can. I think I might send this book to Justin. What odds that he'd reply?