Faster than the speed of Jian Ghomeshi.

[themythicalman]

So, even if you don't read many books, you've probably at least heard of Canada Reads, an attempt by CBC to get all of Canada reading at least one great book by a Canadian author.  The five books that were picked this year were:

• Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald (defended by Perdita Felicien);
  
• Generation X by Douglas Coupland (defended by Roland Pemberton, a.k.a. Cadence Weapon);
  
• Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (defended by Simi Sara);
  
• The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy (defended by Samantha Nutt); and
  
• Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner (defended by Michel Vézina)

For the past five days, the people listed above had to defend their book and explain why it should be the Canada Reads winner; at the end of each 30-minute show, they had to vote which book was to be eliminated (sadly, Generation X went first).  This morning it was announced that Nikolski had been chosen.

So far so good.  Here's where things get a little interesting.

We received a box of books earlier this week from our warehouse in Ontario, with instructions that it was not to be opened until we recieved word from Head Office, which we did this morning around 10 or so.  And what did we find within, but about 20 or so copies of Nikolski with "Canada Reads 2010 Winner" printed on the cover.  Not just stickered, but printed; these books had to have been printed well over a week ago in order to have been shipped to us here.

Yeah, there's probably a very simple explanation here, and I just e-mailed The Mothercorp requesting clarification - still, it was quite the surprise to see these books sitting there, just waiting to be let out and sold to the masses.  Truth be told, though, I don't know if we sold even one today.