Philadelphia - An Uproariously Funny Self-Parody

One Book, One Philadelphia

The Goal of One Book, One Philadelphia is to promote reading, literacy and libraries and to encourage the entire Greater Philadelphia area to come together through reading and discussing a single book.

Now, that cracks me up, because it's so easy to say "...and even that's an ambitious goal for Philly!" If the program were a complete success, the mean number of books read by Philly residents (lifetime!) would probably be something like 1.03. Just a guess.

There's a sinister side, though, if you think about it. It's remarkably statist of an arm of the government to decree what you ought to read, even if it's not mandated but merely suggested. The State not only tells you what to read, but what themes you're supposed to be discussing and learning from the book, a book the State has chosen for that purpose. This sounds like a sure failure and I hope it fully accomplishes its potential to bemuse people and then die quietly, but it's just so weird.

So line up, Philly, and score a copy of your city-approved reading material!