Goodreads provides an excellent web service to keep track of all the books one has read, rate and review them, and (much to my great pleasure) organize books into customized lists!
Toronto Public Libraries puts a maple leaf sticker on Canadian books. They miss a lot, but the stickers make it easy to spot on the shelf Canuck titles. In between signing out mainstream titles by Marvel and DC, I would check out some homegrown works. After reading them I'd add them to Goodreads and my various beloved lists.
I have lists for graphics books by genre, publisher, and target age - as well as for Canadian and local (Toronto) books.
To make it onto my Canadian graphic books list a title must we written and/or illustrated by Canadian or be about a Canadian subject.
Around last summer with Canada's 150 birthday in mind, I decided to make sure I had read 150 Canadian graphic books. Just last night I finished three titles to make it to 150 exactly!
My list of great Canadian graphic book includes:
- superhero adventures! - both homegrown heroes (Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Alpha Flight, Captain Canuck) and American heroes written by Canadians
- experimental and artsy works - mind-expanding and trippy wonders
- famous authors' dabbles - such as by Margaret Atwood, Carol Shields, Cory Doctorow, and Robert Lapage
- First Nations collections
- bitter-sweet (and at times TMI) memoirs
- awesome reads for kids, tweens and teens
- funny comics - from "For Better or Worse" to hilarious travelogues by Guy Delisle
- webcomics
- exciting Canadian history and historical fiction (about Confederation, the Klondike, Glenn Gould, Billy Bishop, Nellie McClung)
I'm still reading more Canadian graphic works. Let me know of anything I should be sure to have on the list for the next Canada Day!
