Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

Robert Morgan’s Boone: A Biography Chosen as Together We Read Book for 2008

Morgan to Discuss Book in Boone September 5

Story by Sam Calhoun

Robert Morgan’s Boone: A Biography is the Together We Read book for 2008. Morgan will travel around western North Carolina in support of his book and the program from July to December 2008. Morgan is also coming to Boone on Friday, September 5, for the Daniel Boone Symposium as part of Daniel Boone Days. What if we all read the same book? And what if that book helped us identify with our regional cultural heritage?

Since 2002, a group in western North Carolina has answered those questions with a program called Together We Read Homegrown—an annual program from July to December in 21 counties that encourages adults and students to read the same book and participate in book discussion programs. For 2008, Together We Read will focus on Robert Morgan’s recently released Boone: A Biography. More than 100 libraries, schools and bookstores across western North Carolina will stock the book, and more than 60 book discussions and lectures are scheduled from July to December at various locations within the 21-county district, including some that feature Morgan himself. The Together We Read programs are free.

The majority of the programs in 2008 will begin in August, according to Together We Read Co-Founder Rob Neufeld, because the paperback version of Boone: A Biography will not come out until then. In the meantime, many participating libraries and schools are stocking the book in hard cover for participants to borrow.

The Together We Read organization is based in Asheville and administers two reading programs annually—The Big Read from January to June, and Together We Read Homegrown from July to December. The Big Read is a national program that started in 2007 and is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Big Read partly shares its mission with Together We Read, “as the programs are meant to popularize reading and literature,” said Neufeld. “But the difference with Together We Read Homegrown is that it also stresses heritage.”

Neufeld believes that by stressing heritage, the program gains a broader audience.

“The word is out that the reading of literature is declining. Schools are having trouble dedicating time to literature, and reading is becoming less pleasurable. There are all kinds of things that are happening that make our case more timely,” said Neufeld. “It’s about culture sharing and discussion and we’re involved in that cause. As a publisher, I see that same struggle.”

Together We Read acts as a catalyst to the programs, distributing hundreds of books to low-income program sites, providing readers’ guides, creating excerpts of the text to get people interested, alerting local media, creating posters, helping brainstorm ideas for displays at bookstores and libraries and creating Spanish translations.

“Our goal is to include everyone,” said Neufeld.

“We do a lot of outreach,” said Neufeld. “In an attempt to reach 100 percent of the residents, we make certain efforts to reach certain segments of our region.” For instance, the program begins in July to reach the large populations of summer residents in the several High Country counties.

The Together We Read programs are staggered to encourage people to read the book before they attend an upcoming program.

“Participants are very often inspired by an upcoming local [program],” said Neufeld, who explained that many bookstores, libraries and schools will collaborate on a single program.

Daniel Boone Days—a new two-day festival for the Town of Boone on September 4, 5 and 6—has just been added as a new program site because Morgan is scheduled to speak at the event on September 5.

The North Carolina Humanities Council, North Carolinian Society, Glad Tithings Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Kellogg Foundation, Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, Asheville-Buncombe Library System Trust Fund, the Friends of Buncombe Libraries, Asheville Citizen-Times, the Friends of Mountain History, Mars Hill College, Mountain Area Information Network, UNC-Asheville’s Friends of Ramsey Library, Western Carolina University, Janirve Foundation and the Friends of Polk County Library sponsor the program.

For more information on the program, click to www.togetherweread.org. For more information on Robert Morgan, click to www.robert-morgan.com.

Together We Read 2008 Program Sites

Together We Read will host programs at more than 60 sites across western North Carolina from July to December 2008. Several sites are located in or around the High Country, including the Watauga County Library, ASU and Lees-McRae College. For a complete list, click to www.togetherweread.org.