If you want to see what communities are reading (for fun!), check out LC’s One Book page. Or if you want think about it as a trans-national phenomenon, take a look at the Beyond the Book project.

And if you’re at a college or university that has a common reading program, and you’re not on my list, drop me a line and I’ll add be happy to add it.

The level of “out of touchness” the book selection demonstrates just blows my mind. Surely there is something that was published in the last 10 years that qualifies as a literary read. Or hell, even in the last 25 years.

I love librarians, but I love the ones hidden away from all things in the real world least.

1) Why not include some contemporary literature? Are people reading The Great Gatsby less now than they did a generation or two ago? Probably. So what? “The Great Books” seems like the worst possible place to start something like this, since most people who are already readers have already read those books, and they’re more likely to intimidate a non-reader than something more contemporary.

2) Maybe they were just jumping on the “community reads” bandwagons. Atlanta just launched one, DC has been trying it for awhile, I’m sure other communities are doing the same thing.

3) I do think the idea of a whole community — even one as large as the US — having a common allusionary base is very cool. We have TV, but something more literary is a fun idea.

“America can no longer take active and engaged literacy for granted,” according to Gioia. “As more Americans lose this capability, our nation becomes less informed, active, and independent minded. These are not qualities that a free, innovative, or productive society can afford to lose.”

I must now admit that I am one of these uninformed, inactive drones; I haven’t read a novel in 4-5 months (short fiction and poetry, on the other hand) even though I read nonfiction–from books–for 1-3 hours a day. And then there’s Internet reading.

The definition of “literary reading” used in the report is also suspect. There are many efinitions of what is “literary,” and I’m not certain which version they’re trying to study. If the initiative is to inculcate a love of reading fiction of literary quality, well…I sincerely doubt that nearly half of the populace regularly read “literature” at ANY point in American history. And the definition of quality is always suspect. If the study and its reparations are to focus on bringing readers to read any fiction, I’m amused that the initial four works have been chosen from the curricula of high school English classes, and all are from the early-to-mid twentieth century. I suppose familiarity was a key factor in the decisions.

I’m glad that the NEA and IMLS are noticing the common reading explosion, but they sure make it sound like an “eat your vegetables” chore – and their claim that this will be the biggest of community reads is pretty arrogant considering how late they’re coming to the party.