Using a bookmobile to capture the spirit of reading

Jessamyn West made a blog entry on the following subject, and I thought I'd spotlight it here as well:

Tom Corwin celebrates reading with bookmobile

[Musician, author and documentarian]Corwin bought this decommissioned bookmobile in October, for $7,500, from a library in a suburb of Chicago after Marin County author Peter Laufer told him over dinner that he'd seen it on Craigslist and wished he could buy it.

"By the end of dinner, I had come up with this whole concept of buying the bookmobile myself," Corwin recalls, "and having authors join me, taking turns behind the wheel, and driving across the country interviewing people about the books that have touched their lives and creating a documentary film and a Web-based literacy outreach component. Peter Coyote was my first call, and he said, 'I love it. I'm in.' "

The piece has Daniel Handler (author of the Lemony Snicket 'Series of Unfortunate Events' books) driving along with Corwin.

Corwin explains that his project is really "an opportunity for the authors and readers to connect on their common love of books."

He will also weave into the documentary the history of bookmobiles, which started in Maryland in the early 1900s and are still thriving all over the country. He stopped at the ALA Conference in Chicago before he rushed back to San Francisco for Litquake (festival co-director and author Jane Ganahl is a big supporter of Corwin's project), and interviewed the librarians who drove his bookmobile for 18 years. They described the magical relationship they had with their patrons as they exposed them to new things through literature

For more on the project and fundraising for it, check out the website. The project also has a presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks, Jessamyn, for the links.