Launched in 2006, the Big Read encourages people in a town or city to jointly read one of a selected number of books. The organization's goal is to have 400 communities on board for 2008.
The communities participating in the program this fall/winter will choose the novel to be read city-wide from among these American classics:
- Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya (never heard of it)
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (read it on my own in high school)
- My Ántonia by Willa Cather (never read it)
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (read it on my own in high school)
- The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (think I just saw the movie)
- A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (read it on my own in college)
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (never read it)
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (have read half to my bored 11 yo)
- The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (never read it(=)
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (read it on my own in college)
- The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (I remember when this book came out! It's weird to see a contemorary book on this list)
- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (never read it, perhaps I saw a movie? with Michele Pfeiffer? or saw a preview?)
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