I was curious if anyone else is doing The Big Read this year my community is reading the book
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by, Carson McCullers.
Thought it would be fun to have a nationwide discussion to go along with our community ones.
I had this topic in Booktalk but thought I'd start it in this group and see if I got any response.
We did that novel earlier this year.
Message edited by its author, Sep 11, 2009, 12:29pm.
How did your town like it?
We're doing The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer for The Big Read. I'd say the response has been mixed in my location -- not a huge turnout at programs and such, but the ones who come are enthusiastic.
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Edited to try to make the touchstone work)
Message edited by its author, Sep 13, 2009, 9:35am.
If you will be posting here, I'll join in. I have the book, and haven't read it yet.
We haven't started yet , I'll be reading it soon. I actually read about half of it before but thought it was depressing so am going to give it another try since I'm making my Teen Advisory Board read it its only fair :).Our kick-off is Sept 27th.
I've done The Big Read before we read Farenheit 451 which wasn't a big hit in little town ND. I hope we get more participants this time!
Do you think this book would be more appealing with a different cover??My Teen Advisory Board said wow this book looks depressing--then when I told them it was the author on the cover they really didn't want to read it.I think if it had a heart or even a brokenheart on the cover I believe it would be picked up more!
I'm going to show my ignorance and ask. What is The Big Read?
It is a national " one book" reading challenge (quotes because each participating community picks one of several books offered by the NEA)
You can find out more info here and see participating communities by state.
http://www.neabigread.org/Its a great program for getting a community involved in book discussions!
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to revitalize the role of literary reading in American popular culture. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, a 2004 NEA report, identified a critical decline in reading for pleasure among American adults. The Big Read addresses this issue by bringing communities together to read, discuss, and celebrate books and writers from American and world literature.
A great book combines enlightenment with enchantment. It awakens our imagination and enlarges our humanity. It can even offer harrowing insights that somehow console and comfort us. Whether you’re a regular reader already or making up for lost time, thank you for joining The Big Read.
Thank you, susiesharp. I checked it out....looks very interesting. I am going to check with our library in our little town and see if they are aware of this. You have a great day.
We're doing
Fahrenheit 451 here. It's our first year, and we're pretty excited.
Your Welcome George.
the_unnamable we did farenheit 451 a couple years ago.I'll be curious how your community likes it!keep me posted.
My city will be doing
Dreamers of the Day next spring, but I'm going to read it in the next couple of days to see if I want to offer to lead a discussion when the time comes.
We are waiting to see what it chosen for this year, but our library participates with a group of libraries, so it's more than one community that reads a book, and then programming is shared by all of the libraries, as well. Last year, it was
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by
Barbara Kingsolver and there were programs about sustainable gardening, etc. The year before, it was
Dream When You're Feeling Blue and our library had swing dancing classes. Depending on the book, it can be interesting and a lot of fun!
#15.. I really like how your library did a Big Read aiming at all members of the community. Great idea to include adult, YA and children's titles!!
We did
The Maltese Falcon last year and this year we are doing
Fahrenheit 451. We had what I would term a "dismal" participation for Maltese and probably won't do any better with Fahrenheit. Its a great idea though. One book, one city or town seem to be more effective because the choices are unlimited for choosing a title.
Wow and I was thinking The Maltese Falcon would have went over better than Farenheit or the heart is a lonely Hunter.
We didn't have a very good turn out for our kick off but hopefully will have more participants in our discussions.
My library is in its third year of being one of the three lead libraries for The Big Read, covering two counties in Western New York. The first year we chose Farenheit 451; this past year we used To Kill a Mockingbird, and this year we are using My Antonia.
How was My Antonia??Its one of the books I've considered doing.I personally didn't like The Heart is a Lonely Hunter but some did .We didn't get many participants more students that had to read the book for school than adults.We had our last discussion yesterday we watch the movie next weekend.I haven't aplied for this myself yet we have always gone in with other organizations so I personally have not picked the books we've done.But am considering applying just can't decide on a book that would really get everyone reading!
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