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Originally Posted by issybird
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I also think that for a category whose purpose was to broaden horizons, including the US and the UK was always problematic. Again a situation with no perfect solution and I understand the decision that having them was better than holes on the map. I hope when it's the UK/Ireland's turn that Ireland (or at least Scotland or Wales) gets the nod and I'll nominate a couple of Canadian works this time. And who knows? Mitt Romney has $25,000 in fireworks sitting in a warehouse in New Hampshire. But if we are to have a US work in this categry, I'd much rather a Lolita than a garden-variety book club tome.
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Yes, I agree that the U.S. and U.K. regions are very different than the rest because of their huge output and our familiarity with them. They were included though because they could still be interesting regions, and since a region will only be chosen once for the foreseeable future, one solitary month devoted specifically to the U.S. and Canada or the U.K. and Ireland could be interesting despite our familiarity, and yes, I agree it would be interesting to see some Canadian nominations as well.
I would go one step further on your last sentence though. We're a discerning group and while there are no shortage of garden-variety book club tomes from the U.S. and Canada, there are also no shortage of great literary works old and new, well-known and obscure, to choose from.