BYU-Idaho Radio · The Madison Library District hosts free event, "On the Same Page"
The Madison Library District is hosting “On the Same Page” during the month of February. “On the Same Page” is an event in which participants, on their own time, read a book chosen by the library that has coinciding activities with it throughout the month. The book chosen is “Phantom of the Opera.”
“On the Same Page” started because of an event called “The Big Read.” “The Big Read” was created because of a study done by the National Endowment for the Arts. They studied people who read for pleasure and found that those people are more likely to be involved in the community. With the rise of technology, however, those numbers were decreasing.
This decrease was a concern, so the National Endowment for the Arts gave grants to libraries across the country to buy books of the same title in order to give them away freely to the public in hopes that more people would start reading.
The Madison Library District got the grant for a few years, and they now continue the same process only now they call it “On the Same Page.”
Cathie Stanton from the Madison Library District looks forward to reading “Phantom of the Opera” this month.
“We have a lot of people on our staff and a couple on our committee that really like horror. We’d never done anything like that before,” Stanton said. “That was a title that we could afford and that people were excited about. We could think of things to do with it for activities and so that’s why we’re doing it this year.”
The events the library is hosting this month include: crafts that focus on light, a program that focuses on the myths and legends that inspired the novel, an open book club discussion and “The Silent Scream” which entails showing the 1925 silent movie of “Phantom of the Opera” at the Romance Theatre with live organ music provided by Jim Clark.
A free copy of “Phantom of the Opera” can be picked up at the library.
For more information on “On the Same Page”, visit: https://www.madisonlib.org/on-the-same-page/