From The Globe & Mail (June 27, 1998)

by Stephen Smith

Newsworld's booktalk show, Hot Type, wrapped up its season last week by airing the results of its first annual literary poll of the year in Canadian books.

The results? Well, according to what host Evan Solomon calls a "rigorously unscientific" sample of opinion from across the country, we Canadians wish that Richard Ford were ours and we think that Mordecai Richler's latest novel is built to last. Those polled -- they included broadcasters Peter Gzowski and Shelagh Rogers,writers Paul Quarrington and Michael Turner, and Globe books editor Martin Levin -- were asked 11 questions. When all the answers were tabulated, they'd voted that:

-- The most over-rated books: Girlfriend in a Coma ,by Douglas Coupland,and Larry's Party.

-- The book that will be quickly forgotten: Girlfriend in a Coma.