I’m not quite sure what to make of the impulse to winnow down a wealth of books to one, with everyone encouraged to read the chosen book. Libraries seem to be behind it. Vancouver Public Library’s One Book, One Vancouver ran from 22 to 211, and was allegedly the first in Canada, inspired by similar projects in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. Simon Fraser University’s library has its One Book, One SFU (current selection: Eden Robinson’s Son of a Trickster). CBC’s Canada Reads is the worst offender, working noisily to turn a quiet, solitary pleasure—reading—into a gladiatorial battle for survival. Is the popularity of these undertakings an expression of our subconscious fear of missing out (FOMO) on the next big thing (NBT)? Is it an understandable reaction to the balkanization of our media diet, where TV viewers are dazzled to immobility by the impossibility of choosing amongst the hundreds of Netflix series released each week? Or is it more insidious, a “wolves vs. sheep” battle: the wolves in this case being those who seek to persuade others to their latest enthusiasm (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, anyone?), the sheep those who allow themselves to be persuaded? “Too many choices! I can’t decide! Someone else, please, just tell me what to read!” Of course, these reservations are swept aside when the chosen book happens to be one of my favourites. Just Kids, Patti Smith’s wonderful memoir of her pre-fame days in 197s New York City, was recently selected as 219’s One Book, One New York. So if you haven’t read it yet, here’s your chance (there’s a new illustrated edition out from Ecco); just think how comforting it will be as you turn the pages, knowing you’re lock-step with eight million New Yorkers. And if you have read Just Kids (as well as M Train, Smith’s follow-up memoir from 215), maybe you’ll want to check out The New Jerusalem (Nexus Institute), a slim volume in two languages (English and Dutch Nederlands), Smith’s response in prose poetry to Trump’s controversial decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.