NEA wants to form book clubs

Uncle Sam wants you to join a book club.

The National Endowment for the Arts has created “The Big Read,” a program that will sponsor community reading groups throughout the country. Like the NEA’s “Poetry Out Loud,” a national competition that was formed last year, the new initiative is a response to the organization’s 2004 study, “Reading at Risk,” which reported a dramatic rise in nonreading.

Thanks to Oprah Winfrey’s book club and the general popularity of reading groups, numerous colleges and cities over the years have organized programs around the discussion of a single work. The NEA has budgeted $4 million for the first year of “The Big Read” and expects to hand out grants of $10,000 to $20,000 to 100 communities, with contributions also coming from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent government agency, and Arts Midwest, a regional nonprofit organization.