About The Big Read
The Big Read – Fight the Fire is coming to Spartanburg. For the third year in a row, The Spartanburg County Public Libraries has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to host the Big Read.
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. Libraries, museums and public agencies around the country receive grants ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 to promote community-based reading programs featuring activities such as book discussions, lectures, movie screenings and performing arts events.
Spartanburg was funded at the highest level. Local sponsors include The Friends of the Libraries, NBSC, Abstract Printing and The Spartanburg County Public Libraries.
Spartanburg County will read the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Approximately 4000 custom printed, paperback copies of this book will be given away free of charge to anyone interested in participating in the program. The books will be available at all Library locations during the program period which will last from September 26 until October 25. A Braille edition will be donated to the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind. Large print copies of this year’s novel will be available as well.
Free book-related programs will be offered at various locations around the county during the program period. The entire event will kick off on Saturday evening, September 26 with an awesome laser light show, put on by DayStar Lasers, LLC at the Headquarters Library. Additionally there will be book discussions, film programs, lectures, an exhibit of Ray Bradbury artifacts, oral histories workshops, book appraisal programs, live theatrical readings performed by The Spartanburg Little Theatre, program on fire safety and prevention, and a teen essay contest posing the question “Which Book Would you Save?”
Learn more about Fahrenheit 451
Learn more about Ray Bradbury