But What If It’s One Book, One Philadelphia, No Libraries?
The One Book, One Philadelphia Selection Committee has just announced that for this year’s title — which is traditionally read by literally thousands of people in the Philadelphia area — they’ve chosen Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel/coming-of-age-in-revolutionary-Iran tale The Complete Persepolis as the featured selection for 2010. Which is great, because we’ve been wanting to check this out ever since we saw the trailer for the film version, which hit U.S. theaters earlier this year. (View the trailer for the film here.) But what if, by January when the program kicks off, there’s no libraries left? It’s a question weighing heavily on the minds of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation, an independent organization (currently sharing space in the Central Library, at least for the moment) which helps raise money for the Free Library of Philadelphia. “We’re moving ahead as though by January all of this will work out,” says program co-ordinator Gerri Trooskin. “Although it would be terrible [if indeed the Philly budget crisis in Harrisburg forces libraries to close], One Book can be moved offsite,” she says, citing that many of the One Book events are already in non-city library locations. To that end, One Book One Philadelphia is moving ahead with its kickoff event featuring Marjane Satrapi next Wednesday evening.
