Thursday, September 4, 2008

Irving Public Library announces start of Big Read program

Better than the Big Sleep program, by a long shot.

By Pegasus News wire

Beginning on Oct. 1, the Irving Public Library will initiate their local segment of the Big Read program.

This nationwide initiative, undertaken by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, is designed to stimulate the interest of adult-type persons in the reading of actual books (you know, those things stored in cardboard boxes in the garage?) by selecting a specific title and, basically, promoting the Hell out of it for a month.

"When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it. Now, start reading. Or else."

The October selection has been designated to be Dashiell Hammet's pioneering detective thriller, The Maltese Falcon - multiple copies of which will be available at all Irving Library branches. You can even download an audio copy of the book here.

So, you read the book - and then what?

Well, at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 6 at the Irving Arts Center you can listen in on a free talk delivered by author Brad Meltzer, who wrote such bestsellers as The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, The First Counsel, The Millionaires and The Book of Fate. Meltzer will hold forth on the topic of "From the Maltese to Meltzer," which might seem a bit self-aggrandizing, but - hey - he is, after all, speaking for free, so deal with it.

From a wider community perspective, book discussions and film screenings will purportedly be popping up all over town, as the City partners with the Irving Arts Center, Irving ISD high schools, North Lake Community College, the University of Dallas, the Heritage Senior Center and Barnes & Noble, as well as various museums and other city organizations, to stimulate the kind of peer pressure that's sure to have folks using lines in their everyday conversations such as: "Keep on riding me and they're gonna be picking iron out of your liver."

All righty then!

posted by JM

Related stories

• City of Irving goes gaga for Dashiell Hammett (Oct. 1, 2008)

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