Louisiana’s long-standing illiteracy rate is put to the test with the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s second annual communitywide program, The Big Read: One Book/One Community, which kicks off this weekend at the BREC Independence Park Theater. Each year a different book is selected for a community read and made available through libraries for the benefit of both children and adults. This year’s selection is Ray Bradbury’s famous science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451, which challenges the idea of technology as the main source of entertainment and enforces that books are crucial for the growth of culture and expansion of intelligence. Mary Stein, assistant library director, said The Big Read is a response to a national survey that showed citizens were simply not reading. “We decided to attack this result with a program with the focus that if the community engages themselves in reading with the mind-set that there is enjoyment in reading, there will be a change in ideas,” Stein said. Claire Delaune, public relations chair for the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, said this weekend’s kick-off marks the first of many exciting events to come. “Saturday, we are going to be showing the excellent movie version of Fahrenheit 451, starring Julie Christie, followed by an open discussion involving members of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, LSU professor Craig Freeman and CEO of LPB Beth Courtney,” said Delaune. “Sunday we will have a lecture relating the book to an event of WWII.” Sabatical Rabbi of B’nai Israel Synagogue of Baton Rouge, Barry Weinstein, said encouraging reading is the main priority of The Big Read because reading captures our minds, helps us with our own imagination and strengthens literacy and intellectual awareness. He will be leading the Sunday discussion at the Main Library. “I will be relating Farenheit 451, which concerns book burning and censorships to an episode during the Holocaust called Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, when Jewish books and prayer books were burned and destroyed by Nazi’s,” said Weinstein. “I’m taking a historical event and relating it to the science fiction novel and also pointing out the relationships we can see even in today’s world.” Stein said The Big Read not only promotes reading, but it promotes an active reading and discussion. “We love it when people read, we love it even more when they discuss what they read,” Stein said. Saturday’s showing will take place at 2 p.m. at the BREC’s Independence Park Theatre and the Sunday lecture will begin at 3 p.m. at the Main Library. Admission is free for both events.
—-Contact Cathryn Core at [email protected].