About the Big Read

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts.  It is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.  On behalf of Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County residents, the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge organizes and promotes community-based programs to encourage reading and spark community engagement. Each year during the month of March, the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge organizes a full calendar of events and activities, from book discussions to film screenings and lectures. “The Big Read inspires people to pick up a good book, engage with their neighbors, and participate in a community-wide program,” says Becky Kohler, President of the Community Foundation, “It is a collaborative, culturally enriching initiative that draws participation from all ages and incomes.”

In its first year, the Foundation chose To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is the rare American novel that can be discovered with excitement in adolescence and reread into adulthood without fear of disappointment. Few novels so appealingly evoke the daily world of childhood in a way that seems convincing whether you are sixteen or sixty-six. 

Some people were surprised when The Maltese Falcon, a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, appeared on our Big Read list in 2009. Yes, it is a detective novel—one of the best ever written. It’s also a brilliant literary work, as well as a thriller, a love story, and a dark, dry comedy.

“More than reading is at stake. Readers play a more active and involved role in their communities. The decline in reading, therefore, parallels a larger retreat from participation in civic and cultural life.” 
— Dana Gioia, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts