David Kipen in the Big Read-mobile

It started when the man who tries to get communities reading the same book for the Big Read program David Kipen — the Director of Literature at the National Endowment for the Arts, and Melville House translator and author — mused aloud on the Big Read blog about “a town small enough and brave enough to accept the challenge of dragooning every last literate resident, without exception, into tackling its chosen book.” Well, it seems he’s found his town, or it found him: A neighbor has suggested Kelleys Island, Ohio — population 128 — and Kipen has accepted the challenge, according to a report in the Sandusky (Ohio) Register. Jason Singer reports that Kipen already has gotten 70 Kelley Islanders to agree to read To Kill A Mockingbird, with 58 to go. The terms of the challenge? “If everyone reads the book and signs an affidavit attesting to that, he promised to return and buy them all pizza,” reports Singer. If they don’t? Kipen will publicly eat a copy of the book.