Karl Kilian, of the Vienna Metroblog, wrote about the city’s “Eine Stadt. Ein Buch” (One City, One Book) program: “That means you can get one of 100.000 books for free (in a library or other places in town).”

That also means there are 100,000 people in town reading the same book. It’s like the hugest reading club ever.

I am excited about this idea.

In my bus riding days, I met all sorts of people by reading on the bus. No, they weren’t all annoying. French people were charmed when I read Jean Genet on trips between UBC and the ‘burbs. I met a guy from Mali and had a long conversation with him about his polygamous family because of Saint-Exupéry. A Hong Kong lady once made me promise to maintain my virginity until marriage thanks to D. H. Lawrence. Well, that last one put me off reading questionable literature in public: Lady Chatterly’s Lover never made it off the bookshelf again.

But can you imagine being in a coffee shop, reading your city-endowed book and striking up conversations with other readers? Even better, can you imagine how great this would be for Canadian writers? Every year, a worthy Canadian book is unleashed to Vancouverites - surely if Vienna can pull it off for years, there’s something we can learn from Ein Stadt, Ein Buch.

I thought I would name a few Canadian novels to get started. Damn if I could think of anything beyond that Atwood chick or that Coupland dude. Yep, I am a prime candidate for the Vancouver One City, One Book.

Update: Thanks to library technician Courtney (who just spent a few months in Afghanistan), it turns out there is already a One Book One Vancouver. They don’t give out free books but their numbers are pretty good. I just wish I knew about this earlier.

How do they compare to Vienna’s presumed 100,000 readers? Let’s see, we’ll assume all their numbers equal one distinct reader: 7,000 readers checked out last year’s book Obasan; 1,500 - 2,000 readers attended OBOV events; 215 readers registered and 6,000 readers bought copies of the book. That is 14715-15215 readers, or about 15% of Vienna’s readership.

With no shortage of promotional events surrounding the book, perhaps the event could grow to all the GVRD’s libraries. (Goodness knows, with the hushed backlash against sympathy for internment victims that we uncovered at one of my museums when we put up a Japanese-Canadian display this month, more people in the ‘burbs need to stop griping about how it couldn’t be helped. Grr!!!)

For other Canadian and US One Book, One City programs, the Library of Congress has some ambitious listings, including a section on Canada and an index by author.

Thanks, Courtney!