Discover new books, new friends through reading challenge
The Division of Academic Affairs and the Daniel A. Cannon Memorial Library are teaming up to provide our Saint Leo community with convenient ways to tap into the joys of reading, individually and collectively. The program is actually a broad range of activities called Recharge with Reading, and it kicks off this week.
The sponsors are welcoming employees and students from our online programs, from education centers, and from University Campus to take part in any or all of the offerings. Recharge with Reading is all about reading for pleasure, for recreation, for inspiration, and for a respite from the reading we must all do as students for class assignments or as employees for work duties.
This week, the university hosts its own observance of Banned Books Week, a national event that celebrates Americans’ freedom to read. In that spirit, the library will post recordings of members of the university community reading from works that have been inspirational or important to them—books that have at times been censored in spite of the works’ intellectual or literary merits. Expect to hear the words of Judy Blume, George Orwell, Malcolm X, J.K. Rowling, and so many others.
Readings will also be part of the programming on the Saint Leo radio station, WLSL-FM, 92.7, which is also available from the university website.
The core of the year’s programming will be virtual reading groups, forming soon, under the Recharge with Reading website hosted by the library. See the Reading Challenge tab. The groups are based on types of books or topics people find interesting, such as science fiction and social justice, veterans’ experiences, trends and forecasts, women of color, and more. Volunteer facilitators have been recruited to pick a few books for the year and to keep meetings scheduled. Reading is on the honor system, and facilitators will not be “teaching” about the books. The meetings will be enjoyable gatherings, not formal class sessions, and a forum for making new friends through shared interests.
The Recharge with Reading site is also full of other fun and useful information. It hosts an archive of the readings from banned books, for those who did not catch the radio content.
And notably, the semester’s activities will include a guest speaker, Florida author Jack E. Davis, who will talk about his Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction work, The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea. This is an environmental history of the Gulf of Mexico that was published in 2018, and all university community members are invited to attend, even if they have not taken part in other reading activities. Davis is credited with writing beautifully and accessibly about the important marine ecosystem just west of where our university was founded.
Davis will speak virtually, at 7 p.m. (ET), Thursday, November 5. There will be no charge to hear and see his talk. The computer link to participate will be released closer to the date of the event.
During the Spring 2021 Semester, activities will be planned in conjunction with Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and other topics.
For more information, contact Dr. Doris Van Kampen-Breit, library director, at doris.vankampen@saintleo.edu.
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