The Rose State College Learning Resources Center is rallying the campus and the community to participate in the Big Read. The Big Read is a community wide reading program that through Oct. 31 and is designed to promote reading for pleasure and enlightenment. The novel selected for the program is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
Along with the Metropolitan Library System the RSC Learning Resources Center will host a series of events that include book discussions at Choctaw, Bethany, Warr Acres, Edmond, Village and Rose State. There will also be book giveaways, fire fighter visits, a Fahrenheit 451 movie review, a reader’s theatre and a Bradbury book exhibit.
“I am really excited about this program because it is designed to restore reading in American culture,” said Sharon Saulmon, dean of the RSC Learning Resources Center. “ It’s about reading and about getting people to leave their homes and offices and unplug themselves for a few hours and enjoy the pleasure of a good book with others.”
Fahrenheit 451 was published in 1953 and is a novel about a future American society where critical thought through reading is outlawed. The central character is a firefighter, which in this future means “book burner.” The number “451” refers to the temperature at which a book or paper ignites. Written in the early years of the Cold War, the novel is a critique of what Bradbury saw as an increasingly dysfunctional American society.
The Big Read is an initiative that was launched nationally in 2006 by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The NEA presents the Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest.
For more information, contact Saulmon at ssaulmon@rose.edu. For detailed information about planned events in Oklahoma County, visit www.metrolibrary.org/thebigreadokc/.