Dear Friends of the Robson Reading Series:
Just a quick reminder that the Robson Reading Series will be hosting two of Canada’s funniest authors, Ian Ferguson and Mark Leiren-Young, on Thursday, January 14, at 7 p.m. at the UBC Bookstore/Library Robson Square.
If you can’t make it that night, Ian Ferguson, will also be giving a reading at 2 p.m., on Thursday, January 14 at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at the Point Grey UBC Campus (1961 East Mall).
The idea for these fun-filled January readings was inspired by the work of Dr. Cliff Arnall, a British researcher who created a formula for calculating the most depressing day of the year.
Taking into account a number of factorsincluding weather conditions, debt level (the difference between debt accumulated and our ability to pay), time since Christmas, time since failing our new year’s resolutions, low motivational levels, and feeling of a need to take actionArnall deduced that the most depressing day of the year falls on a Monday near the end of January, a day now known as “Blue Monday.”
While the quality of Arnell’s research is dubious and his mathematical formula nonsensical, we at the Robson Reading Series will latch onto any excuse to have a good time. And we couldn’t think of anyone better suited to make people laugh the January doldrums away than by hosting authors Ian Ferguson and Mark-Leiren Young.
Both Ferguson and Leiren-Young have been awarded Canada’s highest literary humour award, the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour; Ferguson for his book Village of the Small Houses: A Memoir of Sorts, and Leiren-Young for his memoir Never Shoot A Stampede Queen.
( And in case quality Canadian humour isn’t reason enough to attend the event, as is noted in the best-selling book How to be Canadian, a tongue-in-cheek guide Ian Ferguson co-authored with his brother Will Ferguson: “Let’s face it, Canadian writers are a breed apart. God-like, good-looking, sophisticated, smooth and reputedly well endowed: Is there anyone alive who does not envy the status and glory that is the Canadian author?”)
Ian Ferguson and Mark Leiren-Young will be reading at the UBC Bookstore/Library Robson Square (800 Robson Street) on January 14, 2010 at 7 p.m. Admission is free!
The Robson Reading Series is funded by the UBC Bookstore, UBC Library and the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. In addition, we receive financial support from the Canada Council through the Writers Union of Canada, and promotional support from Geist Magazine.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Poet and social commentator Billeh Nickerson and Journey-Prize winning short-story writer Craig Boyko, January 28, 2010, at 7 p.m.
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UBC Bookstore @ Robson Square
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Tel: 604-822-6453