What a night it was!  Waterloo Public Library hosted the 6th annual “Waterloo Reads! Battle of the Books” on October 16 which saw 8 very competitive local “Champions” defend and debate the merits of books of their own selection.

It is safe to say that the 150+ people who attended the event at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex totally enjoyed the enthusiastic debate the engaging and thought provoking details provided by each and every champion about the books they were defending. This made voting very challenging.

At the end of the evening, with votes tallied, the win went to Lori Campbell. Lori identifies as a 2-Spirit nēhiyaw āpihtākosisān iskwew from mōniyawi-sākahikanihk, Treaty 6 territory in northern Saskatchewan. She currently is Director, Shatitsirótha’ Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre at St. Paul’s University College. Lori was defending “Halfbreed” by Maria Campbell, who also happens to be her Aunt. Congratulations Lori!

In 2nd place was R.J. Johnston, a professional writer, performer, director, certified auctioneer and local radio personality with over 13,000 hours of live radio under his belt at Waterloo Region’s FM 98.5 CKWR. R.J. was defending “Mythos” by Stephen Fry. And 3rd place went to Lynn Macaulay, Initiative Coordinator with the Homelessness and Housing Umbrella Group (HHUG). Lynn defended “The Break” by Katherena Vermette

We’d like to thank our champions and all attendees for helping to make Waterloo Reads such a terrific success!