Spokane Is Reading. But what? When? And why?

How many books have you read this year?

That's not a rhetorical question. It was posed with the aim of eliciting a response.

Now, how many of those books have you read as part of a book club like the Shrinking Violets or Spokane Is Reading? Does participation in those activities encourage you to read more than you would otherwise, or does it pressure you to read prescribed selections and leave little time for you to take up books of your own choosing (or make you feel guilty for doing so)? If the latter, is it some consolation that the prescribed books are those you wouldn't normally have chosen?

As you tally those figures and formulate your lengthy replies, allow me to segue into the announcement that the aforementioned Spokane Is Reading will be holding its annual (really? just annual?) community read on Thursday, October 7. The book for 2010 is Timothy Egan's The Big Burn, "the unforgettable story of America's worst inferno and Teddy Roosevelt's triumphant struggle to save the American forest" (their hyperbole, not mine), which was started by Mrs. O'Leary's cow and contemporaneously documented by Samuel Pepys. For a bit more legitimate background, the Wikipedia page on the natural disaster can be found here.

There are two times and locations for the event:

• 1pm @ Sons of Norway, 6710 N Country Homes Blvd
• 7pm @ Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W Sprague

During those time slots, Egan will present his work and answer questions, followed by a book signing. There are no tickets: seating is unreserved but limited.

Although I'd like to see at least biannual — as in, twice a year, not once every two years — Spokane Is Reading events, their website is valuable in that it offers an excellent "additional reading" section with direct links to the books (as well as their audio versions) in the Spokane County Library District and Spokane Public Library. In that way, Spokane Is Reading deserves kudos for encouraging reading above and beyond the one prescribed book.