6 books that Canada Reads panellist Mark Tewksbury loved reading
Washington Black is being championed by Olympian Mark Tewksbury on Canada Reads 2022
Mark Tewksbury is best known as a record-breaking champion swimmer, winning the 100-metre backstroke gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona during his competitive career.
When he publicly came out in 1998, Mark was one of the first openly gay Olympic champions in the world, and went on to become an advocate for LGBTQ athletes following his retirement from swimming in 1992.
Currently the vice-president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Tewksbury is also recognized for his public speaking and humanitarian work and has written three books and a one-man show. In 2020, he was appointed to the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour.
He is championing Washington Black by Esi Edugyan on Canada Reads 2022.
Canada Reads will take place March 28-31. The debates will be hosted by Ali Hassan and will be broadcast on CBC Radio One, CBC TV, CBC Gem and on CBC Books.
Tewksbury told CBC Books about the books that stand out in his memory from a lifetime as an avid reader.
A Fly Went By by Michael McClintock, illustrated by
Fritz Siebel
"I've moved a lot in my life. I moved to Australia from Calgary when I was 25. I moved back to Toronto and then Montreal, Toronto, Calgary — and along the way, all my books didn't make it with me. But the books that did make it obviously were very meaningful. What immediately came to mind is the kids' book A Fly Went By — it's so silly, you know? It just reminds me of my childhood and reading with my mom and getting my first books and how exciting that was.
"I really took to the tactile nature of books when I was a kid, and I just was so excited to go to the library and take out books and bring them back. And so A Fly Went By just reminds me of that whole era.
I really took to the tactile nature of books when I was a kid.
"My mom still has it. I wish I was in her house right now and had it in my hands. But I just think it's adorable that she still has it in her bookshelf because she remembered what it meant to me as a kid."
Hardy Boys 49: The Bombay Boomerang by Franklin W. Dixon
"This copy is actually still in our house — though it's not just this particular book, but really the whole series. It was escapism as a young kid. Most people think that when you're an Olympian, that you're like some natural athlete and great at all sorts of sports. But I was such a loner. I was really uncoordinated on land. I spent a lot of time in my parents' basement when I was eight to 10 years old, and The Hardy Boys was one of the ways that I would escape.
"Ironically, it was because I was in my parents' basement watching the Olympics that changed the trajectory of my life one day, but books were that first way out for me.
I spent a lot of time in my parents' basement when I was eight to 10 years old, and The Hardy Boys was one of the ways that I would escape.
"I flipped through the book recently and I laughed at how unrealistic it is — these two boys that are sleuths that uncover all these secrets. It's so cute and farcical, but I loved it — I bought in.
"And I think it must have been something that empowered me about boys my own age being able to do these things on a world stage. I think that was where the escapism really came in for me. And also I liked the brothers' relationship. I've got a brother and a sister, and at that time, they drove me nuts, but my parents taught us to be good siblings to each other — to share, and support each other, and I think that's what appealed to me about that as well."
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
"That was a book that I had to read as part of the curriculum in high school, but I actually really enjoyed reading it. It led me to read many more John Steinbeck novels, and it also set me on a pathway where at first I thought I was going to be an English literature major when I went to university. I ended up in a different faculty, but I took that first-year course where you have to read everything from Chaucer to Shakespeare and everything in between. And it's super intense, and I thank my high school teachers for giving me The Grapes of Wrath and some good American reading to start my interest in quality writers.
I just found it really hard to read because I hate injustice, but I couldn't stop.
"When I look back at the stories I've read, I often can't remember the plot very well — but I remember how I felt immediately. And that's what really drew me in when I first started to read great books in high school. With The Grapes of Wrath, the unfairness of it and the inability of people to do anything and how they were just stuck with this fate, I just found it really hard to read because I hate injustice, but I couldn't stop."
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
"This is a big book — it's not as big as Atlas Shrugged, which is almost double in size, but it's still mammoth at close to 700 pages. I ended up being a political science student, and so in my university years I read a lot of political philosophy, from The Prince by Machiavelli to John Stuart Mill and all kinds of interesting stuff. But Ayn Rand wasn't part of the curriculum — it was just something I picked up. I found it quite shocking: the extreme points of view that she takes, the unwavering integrity — to the absolute detriment of one of the protagonists.
I found it heartbreaking to read, but really compelling and interesting — and sometimes offensive.
"I found it heartbreaking to read, but really compelling and interesting — and sometimes offensive. I don't always agree with her political philosophy, and certainly how she can sometimes write a speech that takes like 30 pages, but I did appreciate that it was kind of a new point of view that jolted me a little bit, deep into my political science reading."
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
"For some reason it was kind of a first for me — and it was interesting because Louis de Bernières had a residency at the University of Calgary for a while, and that was what introduced me to him in the first place. And this was the first of maybe seven books of his that I've read. I have come to love sweeping epics — character-driven books that make me feel that they're loaded with emotion. And so when I look where I ended up this year in picking my book [for Canada Reads], I see that Captain Corelli's Mandolin was part of that trajectory along the way.
I have come to love sweeping epics — character-driven books that make me feel that they're loaded with emotion.
"Again, I remember reading about injustice and how public opinion — or a town's opinion, or religious opinion — can swing, and how brutal it can get and how unfair it can be. And of course, there's always victims of love as the sort of byproduct of watching these larger societal village problems. It's kind of epic — there were big characters on the perimeter of a big war, and yet the story brought it down to this intense micro level in a village. And that intensity got multiplied even more by how they were feeling throughout the book."
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
"It has never been out of print since it was first published, I think in 1861. I took a year a few years ago to go back to classics — some to revisit, like Great Expectations or Jane Eyre, and some new books of that era, just to expand my reading exposure. This book was given to me, and it was such a page-turner — absolutely captivating. I remember taking it on one of the first holidays I'd ever taken in my life, and I finished this book within the first week — I just couldn't put it down. There were just horrible villains — just classic, great storytelling, character-driven.
I remember taking it on one of the first holidays I'd ever taken in my life, and I finished this book within the first week — I just couldn't put it down.
"To think that some of these books were written maybe 150 years ago, it was just really intriguing to me."
Mark Tewksbury's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
The Canada Reads 2022 contenders
- Christian Allaire champions Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
- Malia Baker champions Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez
- Tareq Hadhad champions What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
- Suzanne Simard champions Life In the City of Dirty Water by Clayton Thomas-Müller
- Mark Tewksbury champions Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
