One Book, One City: Lists

While they could have picked To Kill A Mockingbird or Fahrenheit 451 like everybody else, these libraries got a little crazy with their 'One Book, One City' picks for 2006. In a good way.

Inspired Picks for 2006 One Book, One City: (I gave up on adding links partway through, after Firefox crashed for the second time causing me to lose a good hunk of this post for the second time... I'll never learn)

Santa Monica Public Library: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer - When I first heard about the premise of this book, I really really wanted it to be good, especially because I almost liked Everything Is Illuminated, but not quite. This book is at least twice as good.
Indiana University South Bend: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Bowling Green, Kentucky: In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason - I always like it when a library picks something by a local girl/boy who made good
Oxford Hills community, Maine: Suburban Safari by Hannah Holmes - Encouraging your community to read a thoughtful book about the environment? Gutsy. Gutsier? Winona Public Library, whose book is Silent Spring
New Hanover County and Wake County, NC: Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson
Eugene and Springfield, OR: Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber
Seattle Public Library: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

And if you're going to pick a classic, these libraries did it right:

Victoria Public Library, TX: Giant by Edna Farber
Bartlesville Public Library, OK: A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Davenport Public Library, IA: The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty

And consistently picking good 'One Book, One City' Books (though many of them haven't yet announced their choices for 2006... and for all I know one of them will go with Frankenstein or The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time or whatever the hell it's called):

1. Buffalo, NY
2. Rochester, NY
3. South Bend, IN
4. Lawrence, KS
5. Ashtabula, OH
6. Austin, TX
7. Eugene, OR
8. Seattle, WA
9. Racine, WI
10. Bowling Green, KY

Finally, big love to the three public libraries I found who chose, either this year, or in the past, comics for their One Book, One City programs: Seattle, Miami, and Bucks County, PA (who chose Maus, and that is just too cool for words).

Which of these will I be reading next?: Giant, followed by Crescent, and then Blood Done Sign My Name