There is no question that Canada Reads panellists get extremely invested in their books, both intellectually and emotionally. They choose these books because something about them connects with them personally, and often, very powerfully.

For Jody Mitic, the themes of reinvention and trying to escape the past in M.G. Vassanji's Nostalgia, stuck with him deeply.

"It's not a secret… I stepped on a landmine, lost my feet, and my entire existence came to a halt," he said during the Canada Reads Day Two Q&A session. "Jody Mitic, the soldier for life, as far as I was concerned, was gone. And eliminated without my choice."

The compelling plot and haunted characters forced Jody to ask himself whether, given the opportunity, he would recreate his body and his identity and, ultimately, live a different life.

"Would I go right back to that moment before the landmine? And often, I say 'no' because I have daughters now and my life is better, and here I am. Like, I wouldn't be here today, right? So anyway, that why I picked my book."