Table of Contents

Introduction
 
Book 1: The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
Book 2: Animal Farm by George Orwell
Book 3: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Book 4: By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart
Book 5: The Bhagavad Gita
Book 6: Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan
Book 7: Candide by Voltaire
Book 8: Short and Sweet: 101 Very Short Poems edited by Simon Armitage
Book 9: Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
Book 10: Miss Julia by August Strindberg
Book 11: The Watsons by Jane Austen
Book 12: Maus by Art Spiegelman
Book 13: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Book 14: Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Book 15: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Book 16: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Book 17: The Island Means Minago by Milton Acorn
Book 18: Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Books 19: The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren
Imagine a Day by Sarah L. Thomson and Rob Gonsalves
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg
Book 20: The Educated Imagination by Northrop Frye
Book 21: The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Book 22: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Book 23: Artists and Models by Anaïs Nin
Book 24: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Book 25: The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi by Larry Tremblay
Book 26: Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
Book 27: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Book 28: Read All About It! by Laura Bush and Jenna Bush
Book 29: Drown by Junot Díaz
Book 30: The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
Book 31: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Book 32: The Rez Sisters by Tomson Highway
Book 33: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Book 34: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Book 35: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas
Book 36: Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor
Book 37: A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
Book 38: Anthem by Ayn Rand
Book 39: Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
Book 40: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Book 41: Gilgamesh in an English version by Stephen Mitchell
Book 42: Gilgamesh in an English version by Derrek Hines
Book 43: The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Book 44: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Book 45: Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
Book 46: Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics 1965–1999 by Paul McCartney
Book 47: The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror by Michael Ignatieff
Book 48: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Book 49: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Book 50: Jane Austen: A Life by Carol Shields
Book 51: Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Book 52: Burning Ice: Art & Climate Change a collaboration organized by David Buckland and the Cape Farewell Foundation
Book 53: Louis Riel by Chester Brown
Book 54: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima
Book 55: The Gift by Lewis Hyde
 
Permission Credits
List of Authors and Titles

About the Author

YANN MARTEL is the author of Life of Pi, the #1 international bestseller published in more than 50 territories that has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, won the 2002 Booker (among many other prizes), spent more than a year on Canadian and international bestseller lists, and was adapted to the screen in an Oscar-winning film by Ang Lee. He is also the award-winning author of The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios (which won the Journey Prize), Self, Beatrice & Virgil, and a book of recommended reading: 101 Letters to a Prime Minister. Born in Spain in 1963, he studied philosophy at Trent University, worked at odd jobs and travelled widely before turning to writing. In 2021 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada. He lives in Saskatoon with the writer Alice Kuipers and their four children.

Reviews

"A splendid read, and his letters outlining the books and what they might offer are wonderful in and of themselves, in addition to inspiring readers to delve into the tomes." —Post City

"Intriguing. . . . A unique book." —Winnipeg Free Press

"What Is Stephen Harper Reading? is a wonderful addition to our cultural vocabulary. Anyone who believes that the art of the letter is not dead, and that reading is still a vital and powerful way to shape the way we see and change the world, will not be disappointed by the eclectic and intriguing mixture of titles Martel presents." —The Globe and Mail

"It’s an intriguing list for any reader, and Martel’s incisive, insightful musings make powerful arguments for the importance of books." —Prairie Books NOW