Behind the Headlines

By Paula Wethington

I’ve been participating in the Monroe County Big Read since its 2007 launch with Fahrenheit 451. Now, to be fair, Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite science fiction authors so that was the perfect book to coax me into participating in a community literacy campaign.

The 2008 Big Read book was To Kill a Mockingbird.

The 2009 Big Read book is The Great Gatsby.

My co-worker Michelle Swartz will have a report for The Monroe Evening News Tuesday, but it has become somewhat of a tradition for the reporters to post Big Read blog reports here at Behind the Headlines.

If you were in the audience tonight during the kickoff event at the La-Z-Boy Center, you were able to get FREE books, study guides, CD-Roms and even a T-shirt if you wanted one. (No, I’m not a T-shirt collector. I don’t wear too many souvenir shirts).

There was live jazz music for the prelude, and the film festival viewing featured the 1974 cinema adaptation of the book.

And if you were there, you probably saw several of my co-workers, one of the other bloggers at BlogsMonroe, and at least one MonroeTalks member in the lobby. They weren’t there just to report on the event. They were there to enjoy it.

The local planning committee is already working on its bid for a 2010 Big Read campaign.

In the meantime, go to the Big Read campaign page and pick an event or two to participate in. I plan to attend at least one more film festival.