Three That Matter is an annual Bookstore initiative designed to celebrate reading as a shared, campus-wide practice. Each cycle, members of our community are invited to name three books that have shaped the way they think, work or see the world. These selections form a growing, evolving portrait of the ideas, stories and voices that circulate through our institution.
Curated by the Bookstore, this project is intended to strengthen our sense of community by making visible the many different paths that bring us together as readers. When students encounter the books that have mattered to people they see and learn from every day, it creates new points of connection, curiosity and conversation across disciplines and roles.
Throughout the year, featured titles will be highlighted and made available through the Bookstore at a 20 per cent discount, inviting everyone to take part in this shared act of discovery. Three That Matter is not just a list of books, but an ongoing invitation to reflect on what we read, why it matters and how those stories help shape who we are together.
Dr. Jay Gamble's Three That Matter
What the Crow Said, Robert Kroetsch
This is a novel of Canadian prairie magic realism. It is, at turns, funny, bawdy, philosophical, bizarre and just plain fun. Kroetsch is an important figure in my life, both professionally and personally. A sentence from Crow haunts me still: “He puzzled with his ink-stained fingers the intricate knot of language that bound him to death.” It was also partly written at the University of Lethbridge when Kroetsch was a writer-in-residence here in the 70s.
Restlessness, Aritha van Herk
I was in a book shop in Vancouver when I saw Aritha van Herk had a new novel out. I opened it, read the first sentence, then immediately went to the till to buy it. It has one of the best opening sentences of any novel I have read. A reversal of the story of Sheherazade, it takes place in the Palliser Hotel in Calgary. It is also, I think, a love letter to Calgary.
Poems of Paul Celan, translated by Michael Hamburger, Paul Celan
Paul Celan, who wrote in German, is probably the most challenging poet I have read. His work is confounding, allusive and elusive. Just as I begin to approach understanding, it slips between my mind’s fingers. And yet it is haunting and enticing. I return to his work again and again and again to struggle with beautifully exquisite difficulty.
Closing thoughts
Read things that challenge your ability to make meaning from them. Read strange things. Read weird.