OSU-N hosting Community Book Club

Hannah Sparling
hsparling@newarkadvocate.com
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  • Ohio State University Newark is hosting a Community Book Club.
  • There are free copies of the book, "The Glass Castle," available to the first 50 participants.

NEWARK — Wondering what to read next?

Ohio State University-Newark has an idea — and a free book.

OSU-N is hosting its fourth annual Community Book Club with the discussion/reception planned for 5:30 p.m. Oct. 9. This year's book is "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls.

The program is sponsored by OSU-N's Russell G. and Melissa Warner Bow Fund and is open to students and area residents. Free copies of "The Glass Castle" are available to the first 50 participants.

"It's a really neat way for community members to come and interact with people at the campus," said Kim Barton, associate director of development for the Newark campus of OSU and Central Ohio Technical College. "I just think it's a neat way to bring people together, kind of sharing their ideas and their thoughts about something they've all shared in."

"The Glass Castle" is a memoir that follows Walls through her childhood, growing up in poverty with typically unemployed, often neglectful parents. The stories are humorous — Walls' parents are what some might call "characters" — but they also go into vivid detail about poverty and neglect. Walls' father is often absent, disappearing for days to get drunk, and her mother seems more interested in painting than, for example, preparing a meal for her four children.

"The Glass Castle" also is the First Year Experience book for OSU-N freshmen this year, so the book club is just one more way to broaden that experience, connecting the campus and the community, Barton said.

She has read "The Glass Castle" before, but she plans to read it again ahead of the Oct. 9 discussion.

"I think it's neat to hear people's thoughts about the book," she said. "Sometimes, we have people share personal things or how they personally related to the book, which can be really neat."

In the first few years of the Community Book Club, participation hovered around 30 people, but OSU-N has 50 books to give away and is looking to expand the program, Barton said.

She looks forward to the event every year, she said. She enjoys reading, and she loves talking to people who attend the discussion, hearing how they heard about the event and why they decided to participate.

Heading into her own college experience, Barton wasn't necessarily a lover of reading, she said. Then she took a few classes in which she was assigned books she enjoyed, and she caught the bug, she said.

She said her hope is the Community Book Club might facilitate that love of reading in someone else — students, residents or whoever decides to join.

hsparling@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8822

Twitter: @hksparling


If you go

What: Ohio State University-Newark is hosting its fourth annual Community Book Club centered on "The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Walls.

When: 5:30 p.m. Oct. 9

Where: The John L. and Christine Warner Library and Student Center at OSU-N

FYI: Participation is free. Free copies of the book will be available to the first 50 participants. To RSVP, call Laura Walsh at 740-364-9514 or email lwalsh@cotc.edu.

About the book

• "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

• A memoir, 288 pages, paperback

• Published in 2006 by Scribner

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