Did you catch the Oscars on television Sunday night?

I started watching because I heard French actress Marion Cotillard was up for best actress award for her work in the film La Vie En Rose. I figured anyone who was featured in a film about an underwear store had to be hot.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered the movie was about the life of chanteuse Edith Piaf. How disappointing. I have walked past the La Vie En Rose store in the mall dozens of times and have always been too embarrassed to go inside. But I never realized Edith Piaf shopped there.

I tuned in early Sunday and was appalled to see Canada's Ben Mulroney on the red carpet. Imagine, the son of a former Prime Minister reduced to trying to lure major stars into the range of his microphone and camera, asking shallow actresses who made their gowns. Does anyone really care?

And he had to settle for chatting with some no-name Canadians who were nominated for Academy Awards. Canada was shut out at the Oscars this year, which is not a big deal when one realizes that we usually win for best animated short subject without a real plot produced by the National Film Board. Not a real heavyweight category.

I shut the television down early and retired to my reading room (aka bed) after I had my fill of close-ups of perennial front-row icon Jack Nicholson and third-row Nicholson wannabe Dennis Hopper.

I didn't make it to my usual favourite part of the night, the two-minute homage to stars who died in 2007. I'm frequently surprised at this point of the Oscars … what, Jane Wyman and Yvonne De Carlo have ceased to be? You're kidding! Ingmar Bergman is no more? Merv Griffin is demised?

OK … I did know Luciano Pavarotti and Evel Knievel were late entertainers …. But Don Ho rests in peace too? Say it isn't so, squire.
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Presuming you had the day off work, what did you do on Family Day? If you didn't have the day off, then I guess you worked and it sucks to be you.

I spent the day with a valued member of my family … a book.

Books have been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. I make no apologies for being a bibliophile. My love affair with the printed word began when I read my first comic book, which was way before I was forced to turn in a book report on See Spot Run in Grade 1.

My love of reading probably explains how I moved from a blossoming career as a hard-rock gold miner into a lifetime of toil as a wordsmith.

I'll read just about anything. If there's nothing at hand during supper, I read the label on the ketchup bottle.

I'm a member in good standing of the Barrie Public Library, one of the busiest in Canada. I frequently play a game with myself while stalking the shelves. You may want to try it. Pick a row of books and grab a few at random. Don't read the jacket intros, just take the books home, get comfortable and open to Page 1.

The great thing about a library book is, if it stinks after a few pages, you can close it and begin another. It's one of the few free things that can give you hours of pleasure, an education, or a drug-free remedy for insomnia all at the same time. And you don't have to worry about the Lunesta butterfly landing on your nose.