Feature The Big Read
Last year, aſter the success to its inaugural year with a special edition of Nick Hornby’s About a Boy, the Kingston Universit Big Read selected Mat Haig’s The Humans—and shared it with a local homeless group. Alison Baverstock reveals the results
K
INGSTON UNIVERSITY LAUNCHED its universit-wide reading project in 2015, printing 10,000 copies of a bespoke edition of Nick Hornby’s About a Boy
(Penguin) and sending one to every new student. The idea behind the Kingston Universit Big Read was to help students transition into universit life, particularly those from socioeconomic groups who have not traditionally thrived (e.g. students from first-generation immigrant backgrounds, carers, mature students, specific ethnic minorities). We decided to make the scheme availa- ble across the entire institution in order not to further marginalise those most needing support. Post-project surveys confirmed the project’s value in prompting conversations, oſten between individu- als who may not otherwise have interacted. Students discussed the book with parents, friends, new house- mates and classmates; staff did so with colleagues, fami- lies and neighbours. The book also made significant
Communal reading
inroads into long-established lines of entrenchment within our communit, across the traditional barriers between academic staff and those they have tended to characterise by what they don’t do (“non-academic”) rather than by their actual roles in administration, professional and technical services.
Spreading the word The potential of books to be communit-builders has been identified before, and shared reading has been used in “whole-cit reads”, such as CitLit, or organised within specific communities, like prisons. A shared book is, however, particularly relevant to a universit where, aſter all, students come to read for a degree. With feed- back, which is still ongoing, suggesting that the univer- sit felt more joined-up as a result of the Big Read, we pondered who else might like to get involved?
www.thebookseller.com
Kingston Universit has a strong relationship with its local communit. Many students remain local aſter graduating and one in eight Kingston homes is reckoned to contain someone with a relationship to the univer- sit—so we began looking locally for other collaborators. The Royal Borough of Kingston was an obvious starting point. We sold them copies of the bespoke edition of our second book—Mat Haig’s The Humans (Canongate)—to make available in local libraries, opening up the author events to the wider communit (and laying on more, such was the demand). Similarly, we worked with Kingston’s Universit of the Third Age, a group that runs educational programmes for pensioners, selling stock and welcoming them to events. We also tried to connect with others who had the time to read and potentially a desire to connect, but who did not have the means to purchase books, contacting
Authors Nick Hornby top and Matt Haig have both participated in the Kingston University Big Read initiative
Dr Alison Baverstock is associate professor at Kingston University’s department of journalism and publishing
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