This is my final book giveaway. Insert clever joke about new leaves here.

The last chance to win - this week it's Who Named the Knife -
Linda Spalding's autobiography/true crime book about sitting on the jury for a murder trial.

Twenty years after sitting on the jury, Spalding tracks the (convicted) murderer down (she was still serving time) - and tells both her story and Maryann Acker's.

Email me and tell me what religion Maryann Acker was and this one's for you. Katherine at blogTO dot com.

Hope you've enjoyed the Book Scene and the Humpday Giveaway - Goodbye and Good luck.

A very special book scene - to help you with all that last minute decision-making.

To read on the plane/train/bus -

Disobedience - winner of the Orange Prize and absolutely great. Alderman's deftness shifiting between the voices of her characters is seamless and impressive, the complexity of issues she handles (religion, family, sexuality) are all deeply intertwined. Ideal travel reading. You'll be so engrossed, time will fly (sorry for the pun).

To give to...

your skinny, nerdy, comic-reading friend

The Best of Dinosaur Comics!. Clever and funny. My fav. is about the misuse of "begging the question". Local boy wonder Ryan North sells tee-shirts, too. I pine for the one that says "Feelings are boring. Kissing is awesome."

(and some twinkies).

The Journey Prize is a $10,000 award presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada and McClelland and Stewart.

The way it works - Canadian literary mags and journals submit stories for consideration (their motivation, $2000 if they bring the winner), the judges (this year - Steven Galloway, Zsuzsi Garter and Annabel Lyon) read them and choose the shortlist - this is where the book comes in - then (later) the winner is announced.

The nature of the lit mag and journal scene means that the writers contending for the prize are up and comers (touted as future noms for the GGs and Giller prizes).

This is great for the writers - it gives them exposure, not to mention republishes their story to a greater audience than they probably would have had in a single literary journal. For readers, we get a potpourri of new Canadian voices.

The verdict?

That's right, TO has made a strong showing in the 18th annual Utne Independent Press Awards. While we didn't acutallywin anything this year, a few of our choice mags made the short list:

The Walrus nominated for general excellence (magazine) and best writing.
Kiss Machine for general excellence (zine)
Spacing best design and best local coverage
Shameless for best lifestyle coverage.
Broken Pencil in best arts coverage.

At least two of these are on my wishlist for next year.

This week - yet again it's a lucky 3 readers who score this week's book, Empire of the Soul: Some Journeys in India from Paul William Roberts.

With January rapidly approaching, I'm sure you're all more than ready for a little Trans-Atlantic trip, if only a vicarious one. I know I wouldn't mind a monsoon or two instead of that -27 wind chill factor.

So - the first three people to tell me why they're having author déjà -vu on this week's HG win! Email, as always, Katherine at blogTO.com.

Incidentally, keep an eye on your inbox if you do submit - I'll be needed your mailing address asap, otherwise your prize will be delayed 'til Jan. Nothing wrong with a bit of a wait, of course.

In the wake of local used stores closing, we find ourselves with another option in the Annex - BMV Books (if you haven't noticed the turqoise paint, then you should unplug that ipod and take a look around).

Similar in setup to box stores like ChaIndigo, BMV sells used/remaindered books in that familiar, easy to navigate, warehouse-y way. (They also have movies and cds - a quick browse round and I was eyeballing a couple 5$ DVDs and thinking at that price I was in a position to start building my library.)

BMV, like Giant Book Sale/Blowout/Name in Big Red Letters stores on Queen and the newish one near the St. Lawrence Market, sell mostly remainders - extra copies the publisher sells cut-rate just to clear their warehouses. And of course, the savings are passed on to you.

BMV also has actual used (vs. unsold) books. The benefit to the big box format is, of course, that you can fit a huge volume of titles in the store, and everyone will be duly impressed by the nice trade paperbacks you have for under ten bucks. The idea being that when you come in for emergency Cliff Notes, you might grab a 'bargain' book for another 30 because it's such a good deal.