Clippings from the Blogosphere

• The 2011 Pulitzer Prize winners have been announced.
• What libraries are all about, according to Happiness by Theodore Zeldin
• Robert Darnton on Five Myths About 'The Information Age' from the Chronicle of Higher Education
• E-Books Rank as #1 Format among All Trade Categories for the Month according to the Association of American Publishers.  I'd be curious to know how many of the people who are "buying the full backlist of an author" are actually reading it. This article reminded me of the old Cathy cartoon about the thrill of getting organized ceasing the moment she ran out of things to buy. Perhaps I'm feeling overly cynical this afternoon.
• 
  Books Everyone Should Read as a tag cloud. Interesting presentation of the analysis this blogger did. New Hampshire readers are ahead of the curve as both of our state-wide Big Read titles are here.
• Help for the casual book hoarder from The New Yorker.
• American Booksellers Association has announced it's 2011 Award winners
• It was a book, now the U.S. Government Manual is online.
• Why do people collect first editions? 

Big Read: NH Reads To Kill a Mockingbird

Our Big Read: NH Reads To Kill a Mockingbird project kicks off next week with a reception at the NH Supreme Court.

Throughout March there will be nearly 200 events planned by over 100 partners at locations from Lancaster to Pelham and North Hampton to Plainfield.

Check out http://BigReadNH.org to learn more about To Kill a Mockingbird and to get details on all the great events planned for next month. Then visit your library to borrow a copy of this classic novel (or buy your own from a local bookstore) and get reading!

Book of the Week #2

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (NY: Grand Central Publishing, c1960)

The book of the week is typically a book that has come to my attention recently and seems (to me at least) connected to New Hampshire. This week was spent working on Big Read: New Hampshire Reads To Kill a Mockingbird so very little else has captured my attention.

During March 2010 there will be programs and events focusing on this classic novel throughout New Hampshire. There are 100 partners in the project including schools, libraries, bookstores, and other NH organizations.

Check out what we are planning at http://bigreadnh.org

Book of the Week #10

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Scribner's, 1925)

Writing in the Washington Post in 2007 Jonathan Yardley explained the signifigance of this novel, "Reading it now for the seventh or eighth time, I am more convinced than ever not merely that it is Fitzgerald's masterwork but that it is the American masterwork, the finest work of fiction by any of this country's writers."

But what makes this a New Hampshire book? The Big Read: Southern New Hampshire Reads The Great Gatsby makes it THE New Hampshire book at the moment, at least in the southern part of the state.

"The Great Gatsby may be the most popular classic in modern American fiction. Since its publication in 1925, Fitzgerald's masterpiece has become a touchstone for generations of readers and writers, many of whom reread it every few years as a ritual of imaginative renewal. The story of Jay Gatsby's desperate quest to win back his first love reverberates with themes at once characteristically American and universally human, among them the importance of honesty, the temptations of wealth, and the struggle to escape the past. Though The Great Gatsby runs to fewer than two hundred pages, there is no bigger read in American literature."
(quoted from The Big Read website)

The festivities kick off with a party on March 20, 2009 (6-9pm) at the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester. Tickets are $25 and must be purchased in advance. Some events are already going on, so check out the full event calendar.

Big Read Now Accepting Grant Applications

The National Endowment for the Arts has just announced the timeline for their next round of Big Read grants. If you would like to do a Big Read program in your communite between September 2008 and June 2009 the deadline for grant applications is January 11, 2008. (They have switched to an annual grant cycle instead of twice per year.)

It was a Big Read grant that supported The Big Read: New Hampshire Reads Fahrenheit 451. I would encourage New Hampshire communities to consider applying for a Big Read grant for their community. If you are considering this and have questions about our experiences please email me. The Center for the Book at the NH State Library will not be submitting a Big Read application in this grant cycle.

Here is the official announcement:

The Big Read, a national program to encourage literary reading and revitalize the role of literature in American culture, is accepting applications from non-profit organizations to conduct month-long, community-wide reads between September 2008 and June 2009. Organizations selected to participate in The Big Read will receive a grant ranging from $2,500 to $20,000, financial support to attend the national orientation meeting, educational and promotional materials for broad distribution, Organizer’s Guide for developing and managing Big Read activities, inclusion of your organization and activities on The Big Read Web site, and the prestige of participating in a highly visible national initiative. Approximately 300 organizations of varying sizes across the country will be selected for this cycle. To download the Guidelines & Applications go to http://www.neabigread.org/ Questions? Call Arts Midwest at 612.341.0755 or email BigRead@artsmidwest.org

Big Read Event Tonight

Author Jeanne Cavelos will present One Mother, Two Fathers: The History of Science Fiction in Concord tonight. She will discuss how the genre has grown through the work of its founders Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells and Jules Verne through today's groundbreaking masters of science fiction. Ms. Cavelos was last night's guest on NHPR's The Front Porch.

This program is part of the Big Read: NH Reads Fahrenheit 451 and will be presented twice:

10/5/2007 (7pm) at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium, as part of their Super Stellar Fridays series. The evening will begin with a presentation of the planetarium program, The Night Sky. This event is open to the public free of charge, however reservations are required. Reserve your seats by calling 271-STAR or 271-7831.

10/9/2007 (7pm) at the Keene Public Library, Heberton Hall. This program is supported, in part, by The Keene Sentinel.

Which book would you save?

In his classic novel Fahrenheit 451, author Ray Bradbury created a futuristic society that burned books. The main character, Guy Montag, finds a group of men who have formed a loosely organized rebellion to save books. Their plan is to “keep the knowledge we think we will need.” The group saves books that represented “bits and pieces of history and literature and international law. Each man had a book he wanted to remember, and did.” If you lived in such a society, which book would you save because the knowledge in it will be needed in the future?

Visit the Big Read: NH Reads Fahrenheit 451 website to see which books others have chosen to save and add a comment to second someone else's choice or send your own response (100 words or less, please)

The Big Read: NH Reads Fahrenheit 451

Yesterday the National Endowment for the Arts announced the recipients of the latest round of Big Read grants and I am pleased to announce that New Hampshire Reads Fahrenheit 451 was among the funded projects.

Over the next few months I will be working with the New Hampshire Humanities Council, the NH Department of Cultural Resources, and over 40 libraries, schools, and bookstores around the state to put together discussions, programs, publications, and events all focusing on Bradbury's novel.
While this will be -- I hope -- a huge celebration of this novel and create a statewide conversation about what literature really means to a society, our project is really only a small part of a much bigger national event. This fall there will be Big Read programs focused on Fahrenheit 451 going on in Colorado, Massachusetts, Virginia, Illinois, Utah, California, Michigan, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, New York, Washington, North Carolina, Arizona, Maryland, and Wisconsin. There will Big Read programs centered on other great books going on as well -- The Northeast Cultural Coop in Amherst, NH will be hosting a Big Read project focused on Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club.
There will be lots of programs and discussions -- some live and some virtual -- going on here in the Granite State in October, I hope you will take the time to read (or re-read!) Fahrenheit 451 and then get out and discuss it with your friends, neighbors, co-workers, family -- anyone you happen to run into.
Great books lead to great conversations and that can only lead to even greater communities throughout our state and our nation.