This isn’t quite the same thing, but Boulder County does have a pretty incredible program called “One Book, One Boulder County.” Basically, every year a group of the public libraries selects one book, and throughout the year they hold several events that focus on that book–the author might come to Boulder for a reading, a library might sponsor a talk by an expert on some subject in the book, etc. It’s like one giant book club. I’ve only been living in Boulder since 2007, but they’ve had some pretty eclectic books in those years (Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya in 2007, Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam in 2008, Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson in 2009).

Unfortunately, as I was just going to look up what the selection for 2010 was, I found out that the program is “under review” and won’t take place this year. They’re hoping to have it back in 2011, but we’ll see.

This is obviously a local thing and works pretty well because of it (the events that the library holds are really the coolest part of the program), but it’s still a huge program. Boulder County has a population of nearly 300,000, and although not everyone in the county reads the book, a lot of people do. It might not work so well on a national level, but wouldn’t it be awesome if they could figure it out?