Welcome!

Hello and welcome to The Big Read Lynchburg!

This fall, Amazement Square, the Lynchburg Public Library, Lynchburg City Schools, and many other community organizations and local businesses, are teaming up to present The Big Read Lynchburg, a community-wide reading initiative. We will explore Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 through book discussions, contests, film, stage adaptation, panel discussions, and more.

But first, why? Why Amazement Square? Why The Big Read? Why Fahrenheit 451?

Why is a very important question, especially when taken in the context of Fahrenheit 451, a book that's main character's undoing and rebirth is a direct result of his asking this very question. When Guy Montag wants to know why a woman would rather be burned to death than to give up her books and why the government insists on burning the books in the first place, he finds an entirely new world, one where critical thinking and imagination is allowed, something he's never experience before.

As an educational organization, Amazement Square prides itself in creating a new generation of informed thinkers and imaginative minds. Believing in the importance of making reading a lifelong activity, the museum has celebrated "The Year of Authors" in 2008, profiling a new children's author each month through hands on, interactive programs and activities. While this program suits the museum's target demographic of children ages 4-13 and their families, the museum recognized the need to host a reading program that would reach the entire community, regardless of age or background. The National Endowment of the Art's informative study, Reading At Risk, explains it in much greater detail, with many more facts and statistics, but let us just say that reading is in danger here in America. College students, young professionals, and adults all report a considerable decrease in reading over the past decade. What's more, the NEA has found that people who do read regularly are almost twice as likely to engage in civic activities such as volunteering and attending or participating in arts, sports, and other community activities.

The Big Read, a major initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museums and Library Services, fit what we were looking for. The program is designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and bring the transformative power of literature into the lives of its citizens. Across the nation, hundreds of communities of varying sizes and demographics take part in this community activity. Here in Virginia, there are Big Reads occurring in Charlottesville, Abingdon, Staunton, Harrisonburg, Virginia Beach, Wise, and Martinsville.

Finally, what a better book to get the community involved in reading than Fahrenheit 451, where reading and books is all but extinct. Bradbury's harrowing vision of the future rings all too close to home: in-ear listening devices, overly zealous television news anchors reporting half truths, and wall sized television sets that have replaced books and reading and other intellectual pursuits. The reader follows Guy Montag as he discovers the importance of reading, books, and even asking important questions of authority, life, aned family. As the readers follows Montag, one can't help but be re-introduced to what we always loved about books: that they can take us to places that we couldn't even dream of and that they make us explore and questions the world around us and even our daily lives.

Exploration is a key theme, that we hope you will take with you as you participate in The Big Read Lynchburg. We hope that you will explore our many events, book discussions and contests. Perhaps attend an event at a location you've never been to, talk to someone you've never spoken with before. We hope that this book and our activities will help you explore the world around you and help you reconnect with a love for literature that is so easy to forget in our busy lives.

Check back with us soon for more Big Read related content!