Feb. 03--The Chicago Public Library has added a social-media twist to its One Book, One Chicago program by releasing the most recent entry in serial form online.
The library will make segments of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier Clay" available for downloading every few weeks.
The release of the book in six sections comes in the spirit of the serialized novel releases of the 19th century and their contemporary spin-offs, like NPR's popular podcast, "Serial," library officials said.
"Mark Twain famously did serialized publications around his novels," said Brian Bannon, commissioner of the Chicago Public Library. "It was a way for the whole community to be engaged in the narrative."
And that's also the goal of the program -- to encourage Chicagoans to read the same book and discuss it. For this selection, any city resident with a library card can download the first section of the 2001 book by Michael Chabon.
That section became available Monday and will stay available for the duration of the initiative. The five remaining sections will be released and available for two-week periods, starting with the second section's release Feb. 23.
Every week, the library also will announce "reading sprints," a time frame designated for people reading online to join a collective conversation by tweeting their opinion, favorite quotes and reactions from the book.
The hope, according to Bannon, is that people will read and share. The Chicago Public Library is the first the nation to try serial book reading, Bannon said.
"This is a pilot, it's an experiment," he said. "It's a way for us to test out the technology."
In October, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier Clay" became the 25th selection of the popular One Book, One Chicago program.
Set in the years leading up to World War II, the story is about Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clay, cousins who create the comic book hero The Escapist in New York in 1939 -- at the dawn of the age of comic book heroes. The story is also about immigrants. Joe and Sammy are Jewish, and Joe narrowly escapes the rise of fascism in Eastern Europe to come to New York.
Patrons can begin reading together by downloading the first installment any time online at http://www.onebookonechicago.org.
mmrodriguez@tribpub.com
