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Several favourite books to be revisited Continued from page 6 Tm currently writing a biogra- phy of George Henry Martin Johnson, Teyonhehkwen, a legendary Chief of Six Nations in the 19th century. Many of the records on Indigenous subjects in Canada have been digitized recently, in part be- cause of the Truth and Recon- ciliation Commissions work, and this has been invaluable! 1 have now gone through tens of thousands of such documents ‘online, which would have been impossible without Canada’s central library and archives. Q. How did reading as a young person influence you as a doctor and a historian? They're two different soli- tudes: science and. history; al- though they do come together in another interest of mine: the history of medicine. Asa med- ical student one learns to take a patients history and, after logical findings. In challenging cases, the physician may even consult reference sources. In- texpreting and whiting Hither process, But Tm convinced that being exposed to differ- ent writing styles and genres invariably improves one’s own writing style. I've read a lot of history and nan-fiction adven- turé/expedition books over the — Ernest Shackletonis South: The Endurance Expe- dition, 1914-1916 comes to mind; more recently I've been influenced by Canadian his- torian Charlotte Gray, whose many works indlude biogra- phies of Pauline Johnson and Alexander Graham Bell, who was a good friend of ‘my’ Chief Johnson. Pierre Berton’s output was truly remarkable —I once met him at a book launch and he freely admitted that he had cot three or four researchers — I wish I had those resources, Q. What is the value of a library? As I explained, the library has been invaluable for me personally; however, I was so impressed whenever I came into the library to use the mi- crofilm reader, just how busy the library was: I would witness children of all ages coming ei- ther with their school class or ee |) eee ee ee out books to take home; some times there was a librarian sim- ply reading to a small group of children, while on other occa- sions. parent (or grandparent) would be sitting there quietly reading a story to his/her own child. And whenever I'm at the front desk I'm impressed by all the coming and going of folks of all ages. L also know of at least one person who comes in regularly to the library just to use the computer, I'm fa- miliar with others who enjoy the periodicals. No doubt, for some the library provides a ref- uge — a pleasant, ‘safe’ place to escape from their little apart- ment or perhaps some social niflict. Q Doyou havea favourite book that you keep coming back to read again and again? fm sure for many, ones favourite book changes from decade to decade of genre to genre or simply evolves accord- ing to one’s stage in life. There are books that on reading the last sentence, you sigh and think ‘wow, that was the best read yet: Then you find other books equally im- Ce St ee, ee ee someday you will just have to go back and relive that special read. One that sticks with me is The Englishmants Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe — Tl be cam- ing back to it, someday. Also, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr was wonder- ful, in part from my own per- spective as an ophthalmologist. | really enjoyed Canadian au- thor Alistair MacLeod’ novel, No’ Great Mischief, although T was frankly disappointed to learn how little regard Gener- al Wolfe had for my Scottish- soldier ancestors. One would be remiss if 1 didn't mention The Journal of Major Johri Norton 1816 with its remarkable narrative of In- digenous Peoples and the War of 1812, including many refer- ences to Niagara. I was fortu- nate to hald Norton's original manuscript in my hands in the library of Alnwick Castle, En- gland, where it sat ree it for 150 years until discovered by a researcher and published (and later feprinted) by the Gham- ee ey ee Dr: Richard Merritt with his books. (/. Andzans) event where I could talk and important resource to have an answer questions about my institution like a local library sarod: eaubltrnetne —— capie am theatceranetc tAral uncharc