One Book, One Community is program established in several South-Central Pennsylvanian communities to encourage literacy and intergenerational discussion of literature. The Book Thief was a previous “One Book” selection.
“One Book, One Community” launched in South-Central Pennsylvania in the early 2000s, and now 7 counties participate. The campaign aims to bring local communities together through reading and discussion of a book.
This year, the chosen book is “The Worst, Hard Time” by Timothy Egan. While previous titles have been fiction, this year’s title, chosen for the first time by a community vote, is a nonfiction piece centering around families living through the 1930s Dust Bowl.
Library secretary Karen Powers said that the One Book choice is “really popular in the public library” but “not so popular here.” She said academic reading and the busy lives of students often keep students from doing recreational reading.
The One Book choice is typically distributed to libraries throughout participating counties a month or two before events surrounding the book, like discussions and lectures, start. According to the 2014 One Book website, lectures this year included “All About Dirt,” a discussion by local farmer Jon Darby about “all things dirt…soil and composting.”
Powers said that One Book One Community will “increase [libraries’] circulation” because of the community drive to read the book.
Previous One Book choices include “The Book Thief,” by Markus Zusak, “The Kite Runner,” by Khaled Hosseini, and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” by Mark Haddon.
York Suburban High School Book Club read the 2013 One Book One Community pick, “The Cellist of Sarajevo” by Steven Galloway, for its Jan. 2014 meeting, and is considering a Khaled Hosseini book for a future read.
Powers said the One Books choice “is… a great pick for books clubs” because “if two people have read a book, they can discuss it.”