Spotlighting UCSB Reads

For two decades, UCSB Reads has turned a usually solitary activity into a collective experience. Run by the UC Santa Barbara Library, the program offers conversation and collaboration between students, faculty, staff, and community members over a single book each year, and they host events such as book giveaways, workshops, and author visits.

The program was launched in 2007 in partnership with the library and the Executive Vice Chancellor at the time, Gene Lucas. In a recent author talk’s opening remarks, University Librarian Todd Grappone described UCSB Reads’ mission as “foster[ing] a shared sense of belonging” by bringing the campus and community together through a shared book. Despite its growth, the program maintains its mission today but has also broadened its theme into something more relatable instead of the initial “Earth Day” theme back in 2007.

This year, UCSB Reads is celebrating its 20th anniversary, with one fête being the 20-year exhibition located on the first floor of the UCSB Library. Sara Kelly, Exhibitions and Events Manager at the library as well as co-curator of the exhibition, said that it “highlights the scope of the program and the different titles that [they’ve] been lucky enough to feature as each year’s UCSB Reads pick.”

This exhibition shows statistics about the program as well as quotes, such as one from Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the first book chosen for UCSB Reads, Field Notes from a Catastrophe. Photos of the covers of each selected book are also currently displayed in the exhibition, as well as custom bookmarks that passersby can take.

“It’s been fun to see students stop in front of [the exhibition] and look at everything,” Kelly shared. “I’ve definitely heard comments of people not believing that the Dalai Lama was here for UCSB Reads.”

Kelly and the library’s Director of Communications and External Relations Johannes Steffens shared a bit about the behind-the-scenes process of selecting each year’s book, confirming that once the committee has been decided, an initial selection meeting is held in which everyone brings in one to two books that fit the ideal criteria. After this, they also review submissions from the public before spending the summer in a mini book club setting where committee members read the books and decide on their top five. At this point in the process, the committee reconvenes to make their top selection, which is then revealed sometime in fall quarter.

The criteria for the perfect book for UCSB Reads includes it being interdisciplinary, intellectually stimulating, ideally less than 400 pages (although that wouldn’t necessarily disqualify a title), fairly recent, critically acclaimed, and adaptable for classroom discussion.

“We have the goal of trying to find something that’s really broad that can bring in a lot of different partners from both the campus and the community, but that still resonates with everyone,” Kelly added.

With this year’s book, Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, committee members were very “intrigued” by the book, according to Steffens. “As we read the book over the summer … her book was the clear consensus number-one choice for this year.”

“There’s just something really compelling about a coming-of-age tale, since this is a coming-of-age moment for a lot of our students,” Kelly added. “[Zauner] writes in a way that has such great candor that’s really approachable. That was instantly going to be relatable to students. Even though she covers a wide range of topics — grief, loss of a family member — there’s so many different ways into the story through her connection to music, creativity, and writing…. A lot of students that I interacted with through programming felt that they could really see themselves in part of the story.”

The programming kicked off with its annual book giveaway in January, which had a line 45 minutes before its start, according to Kelly and Steffens. More recently, UCSB Reads hosted an author talk with Zauner herself, and other events for Crying in H Mart this year featured a bibimbap cooking workshop that draws on the Korean cuisine featured in the book, as well as language exchanges, poetry readings, memory keepsake activities, book discussions, a cultural comfort-food fair, and more.

In these events, Kelly saw students and community members become unexpectedly vulnerable with one another. “Because [Zauner] is so open and vulnerable within the book, it almost gives people a license to do that as well,” she shared. “We’ve had several book clubs and discussions where people really shared things that I was surprised they were that openly vulnerable with a group of strangers…. It’s rewarding to see how people resonated with the text.”

As for why a shared reading experience matters on campus now more than ever, Steffens said, “Students really look for community, and obviously there are lots of opportunities on campus and in the area to find your community, but it seems that there is still some sort of gap of something that bridges the social and the intellectual. I think that’s UCSB Reads. It is both a social experience and an experience where students can meet their peers or meet people from other walks of life. They can engage with faculty, staff, or community members on a different level. You also have the intellectual academic experience of reading, analyzing, and discussing a text both in a classroom and in these other settings.”

More information about the program and future events can be found at library.ucsb.edu/ucsbreads.