One Book, One Denver

On Tuesday morning, I attended a press conference in the Burnham-Hoyt Reading Room of the Denver Public Library. Mayor John Hickenlooper and officials from the library and the Denver public schools were on hand to announce this year's One Book, One Denver, The Milagro Beanfield War, by John Nichols.

One City, One Book movements have swept the nation since Seattle's Washington Center for the Book came up with the idea in 1998. It's pretty simple - the city will pick one book to focus on for a year and all the reading agencies in the city get behind the title and encourage everyone in the city to read and discuss the book.

This is my first time in a city with this kind of program and I'm excited to see how it works. I'll be leading a discussion group at my library branch and look forward to the varied opinions and points of view that will come out when an entire city reads together.

This is Denver's third year. Past books were:
2005 - Caramelo, by Sandra Cisneros
2004 - Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger

Additional links:

The Center for the Book at the Library of Congress has a list of all the areas in the country that sponser programs of this type.

One Book, One Denver activities sponsered by the Denver Public Library.

Activities and events sponsered by Denver's famous independent Tattered Cover Bookstore.

Let's read together!