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Expanding The Big Read

I mentioned in an earlier post that book publishers seem to think we aren't reading enough. Apparently, they aren't the only ones. The National Endowment for the Arts is sponsoring a program called The Big Read, a response to 2004 report “Reading at Risk� reporting that less than half of the U.S. adult population reads literature, with the sharpest drop being in the 18- to 24-year old age bracket. The program will financially reward communities that select a novel and encourage people to read and discuss it.

It began with 10 cities, but is expanding to 100. The original program offered communities a choice of one of these four books: Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Personally, I think any program encouraging people to read is a great idea. However, I don't think anybody should be too surprised that people aren't reading as much. People are continuously trying fit more and more activities in their busy schedules, and some leisure activities are going to suffer or be omitted completely. With plenty of other distractions like television, the Internet, DVDs and video games, reading is definitely likely to suffer. That being said, when I first saw these numbers, I was a little surprised because I know a lot of avid readers, but reading isn't the focus. Reading “literature� is the focus, and the NEA's definition of literature includes any novel, poem, short story or play (very generous in my opinion, but I won't go there).

Anyway, here is more information on the Big Read, and you can check here to see if your city is participating. And if not, I'll encourage you to read the book of your choice, whether it's considered literature by the NEA or not.

Happy reading!

Posted in Big Read | books | literature | National Endowment for the Arts | reading Musings of a Wordsmith | delicious | digg | reddit | 310 reads

Submitted by gom jabbar on May 12, 2006 - 2:48am.

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o ceallaigh | May 12, 2006 - 3:49pm

In school, I was one of those smart kids you all hated. When I read a book like The Great Gatsby or The Grapes of Wrath, I was one of the ones who "got it". Or thought I did. Because the teachers said I did. Imagine my shock when I read those books again years later and discovered that I hadn't understood a thing. I simply hadn't lived long enough to really grasp what was going on in those books. I couldn't understand why all my classmates were puking and screaming boredom over all those Victorian novels. Now I get it. A lot of these kids couldn't have given you the start and end dates of the American Civil War. They're going to grasp a long story by a 200-year-old penny-a-liner which you need a Ph.D. in history to comprehend?

It wasn't all that long ago when the only book that many people could afford to have in their homes was the Bible. So they learned to read from it. Not exactly "Tip and Mitten". Not exactly socially-engineered age-appropriate material with the NEA stamp of approval. Goo goo ga ga to Davidic monarchy in one take. Well, maybe not, but you get my drift.

I should think the NEA would be far better advised to get "literature" into the Internet and the blogosphere. To point to movies, plays and DVDs based on "literature" and induce people to read / listen to the books behind the fx. To get people to see, and talk about, the literary differences, say, between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. The Matrix movies have got people talking about Gnosticism, for crying out loud. NEA should be jumping on this kind of trend for all it's worth, I think.

Because just making kids read books that they don't have the context to understand will just give dying "literature" the coup de grâce.


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gom jabbar | May 12, 2006 - 5:49pm

I think there has to be some middle ground when it comes to literature. I don't necessarily think that a book has to be 200+ years old or has to be as dense as A Tale of Two Cities or Ulyssess in order to be good. But I don't necessarily think that all fiction is literature either. I've seen more literary quality in some nonfiction books I've read than that romance novel by Nora Roberts probably has.

I think you made a lot of good points, especially about movies. I'm not really a science fiction fan, and I didn't read Dune until my boyfriend made me sit down and watch that five hour mini-series with him. It was that good, and the book was even better.

I'd go into it more, but it's been a rough day. I'll be glad to discuss literature again later with anyone who is interested. ;)

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