Library promotes next Big Read

JAMES CULLEN
News Writing Student

Several copies of Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel “The Maltese Falcon” are available in the Keith Leftwich Memorial Library for checkout by students looking for some reading over the holidays, said Barbara King, Library Services director.

This short novel takes place during the roaring ’20s and is about private detective Sam Spade and his partner Miles Archer and their murderous hunt for a golden statue of a falcon.

This novel is being offered as part of The Big Read — a reading program designed to have many students read and discuss classic books, King said.

She said group discussions on the novel will be scheduled in the spring.

Teachers are being encouraged to include this novel in their curriculum for the spring semester, King said. The college has about 200 copies available for classroom use.

The Big Read is an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts. Its goal is to bring reading into the center of American culture, King said.

She said the program is sponsored by Rose State College, who donated the books to OCCC.

This is the second year Rose State has received a grant for the program, she said, and will be OCCC’s second year in participating.

King said The Big Read is a nationwide event that typically lasts a month, and gives the entire community the opportunity to read and discuss a single book.

The NEA has found the rate of decline in literacy in the U.S. has accelerated rapidly, especially for the young, she said.

“The Maltese Falcon” was chosen, out of 30 books, to be used for the Oklahoma City Big Read. King said it was chosen for its literary development of characters, parables within the story, symbolism, and its qualities of being a great novel.

This novel has been filmed three times throughout the 1930s and ’40s, and was made stage-ready for production in 2005.

King said the library will screen the 1941 version of the film at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 23, in the College Union 2 and 3. A short speech by film expert Elizabeth Anthony will follow.

For more information, contact King at 405-682-1611, ext. 7315.