Book discussion to spark ideas

Bloomington residents will have the opportunity to discuss the book "Reading Lolita in Tehran" at 7 p.m. tonight at the Monroe County Public Library, 303 E. Kirkwood Ave. The event is sponsored by the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions.\n"Reading Lolita in Tehran" was chosen for the 2004 One Book One Bloomington program.\nOne Book One Bloomington was founded by the Bloomington Area Arts Council. The program is based on the idea of people all over the community reading the same book and discussing the various issues it raises. Residents are encouraged to read the book and then attend one of the several discussions held around town.\nCommunities nationwide have participated in a One Book One Community program as a way to get people who don't regularly see each other to read a common book and then discuss it, said Glenda Murray, program associate at the Poynter Center.\nThe citizens of Bloomington chose the book from a list that was put together by the One Book One Bloomington program. \n"We have a steering committee that puts together a list of five books of recent fiction and nonfiction, and we distribute public ballots through The Herald Times and various locations around the community," Sally Gaskill, director of One Book One Bloomington said.\n"Reading Lolita in Tehran" was written by Azar Nafisi, an Iranian native and scholar. The book documents a two-year period in which Nafisi secretly met with seven of her brightest students to discuss Western literary classics. \nThese books were banned by the fundamentalist Islamic government of Iran, according to a statement from the Poynter Center. Nafisi's students read and discussed Jane Austen, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Vladimir Nabokov, all the while learning about the characters in the books and discovering themselves. The women met every Thursday morning in Nafisi's home and read photocopied pages of the books.\nThis is the first year the Poynter Center has worked with One Book One Bloomington. It made the decision to hold a public forum because it has several IU faculty members currently studying democracy and dissent, Murray said.\nMurray said the Poynter Center chose the book because of the obvious connection between democracy and dissent.\n"This group of women was dissenting from the current regime in Iran by the act of reading together," Murray said.\n"Reading Lolita in Tehran" has become a worldwide phenomenon. It's currently listed as the 65th most-purchased book at www.Amazon.com. \nThe forum will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. tonight in Room 1B of the Monroe County Public Library. The next book discussions will be held at 2 p.m. April 24 at Barnes & Noble and at 3 p.m. May 2 at the Monroe County Public Library.\nFor more information on One Book One Bloomington, visit the BAAC Web site at www.artlives.org/obob.html.\n--Contact staff writer Mike LaFollette at malafoll@indiana.edu.