Which do you prefer, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or The Outsiders? To Kill a Mockingbird or The Great Gatsby? Fifty Shades of Grey or Twilight? That’s what readers across America will determine with PBS’s new initiative, The Great American Read. Over the next few months, an eight-episode series highlighting these books—among others—plus what people love about reading will air on PBS, readers eventually voting on which book will be named the most-loved Book in America. But there’s more to The Great American Read than picking favorites.
As part of the program, 50 libraries across the U.S. were provided a grant by PBS to screen the series and offer special programs to promote reading and writing, In all, 220 libraries applied for grants, with Reston Regional Library earning a $2,000 grant to serve as NoVA’s local resource for the program.
Things will kick off on Saturday, May 19, with an advanced screening of the first episode of The Great American Read, which will reveal the 100 most-loved books and will feature celebrities talking about their favorites as well as what reading has done for them.
If you can’t catch this advance screening, the premiere episode will air on PBS on May 22. The subsequent episodes will run between now and October, with Reston Regional Library hosting even more advanced screenings for each.
Outside of the screenings, the library is planning to feature special programs with authors, including an author talk with Newbery medal winner and Reston native Kwame Alexander (The Crossover) on Sept. 8. Starting in June and occurring every fourth Saturday through October, Reston will host a green screen photo booth for people to place themselves in their favorite books, and beginning in July, there will be monthly literary trivia nights concerning the 100 books on the list. Then in August, a five-part lecture series with local scholars and writers will explore themes from episodes of The Great American Read: what we do for love; heroes; villains & monsters; other worlds; and who am I?
“Books are so powerful in so many ways and people at the library … we really love to share that magic with other people,” says Mary Mulrenan, marketing director of Fairfax County Public Libraries. “So a nationwide program like this really supports that effort, an effort that we engage in every single day.
“In the end, we just hope for more of an awareness and more of a conversation about libraries and about reading,” she says about the goal for the program.
Updates to Reston’s program schedule can be found at fairfaxcounty.gov/library/events.
The reveal of the most-loved book will take place in October; readers can vote on their favorite online or at Reston Regional Library.
