Local libraries will be on the same page in 2010

July 10, 1:47 PMSeattle Books ExaminerDanielle Dreger-Babbitt

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Readers, break out your library cards and mark your calenders!  Libraries in King, Snohomish, and Island counties will all participate in their own one book/ one town program next year.  Seattle Public Libraries will read Secret Son by Laila Lalami.  The Sno-Isle Library System (serving Snohomish and Island counties) will read Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried.  

Since 1998, the Seattle Public Library has had a program each year to get Seattleites to read and discuss the same book.  They called it “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book."  The name has since been changed to "Seattle Reads."  Seattle reads is made possible by The Seattle Public Library Foundation, with additional support from The Wallace Foundation, KUOW 94.9 Public Radio and Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.  Next year will be the twelfth year of the series and the library system will feature the book  Secret Son by Laila Lalami. Lalami will visit Seattle next May to talk with readers about her novel which explores the struggle for identity, culture, religion, politics, and the factors that can turn disaffected youth to religious extremism.

The Sno-Isle Libraries will partner with Everett Public Library to host the second Big Read throughout Snohomish and Island Counties with a $15,000 grant received from the National Endowment for the Arts. The chosen title for 2010 is The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, a collection of stories about the Vietnam War.  This year's inaugural Big Read was The Maltese Falcon, read by over 1500 people in April and May. 

These programs are more than just one wicked long book discussion group.  They are designed to give communities the opportunity to come together to read, discuss, and celebrate a single book and help foster a passion for reading.  Besides book groups, the libraries host author lectures, films, and other events to celebrate the book chosen.  Programs like this can be found nationwide.  This is especially beneficial for people returning or turning to their local library for the first time during the current recession.  It's proof that libraries are more than just a place to pick up a book or movie- they are a place to connect with a neighbor or go on a cheap date or learn something new.

For more information about these programs, visit the Seattle Public or Sno-Isle Libraries,  

Sound off:  Have you ever participated in a program like this?  What did you like about it?  What did you read?

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