Educational institutions do more than “teach” skills. They are the chief means by which one generation hands the world, messy as it may be, over to the next. This year’s reading, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, puts the Kingsborough community in contact with a culture that is unfamiliar to most of us at the same time that it offers us a view of a world that is of  increasing global and political importance.  The book is the story of a father-son relationship set against the background of ethnic and politiial turmoil in modern Afghanistan.

            KCC Reads was initiated at a meeting of the Kingsborough Faculty Assembly in the Spring of 2001. Like cities and colleges across the country, we wanted to use the common reading of a book to create community; to bring all constituencies of the college together to read, discuss, and talk about a book that we have all enjoyed. From year to year, participation grew and so did programs we offered. KCC Reads now works very closely and collaboratively with Dean Reza Fakhari’s Common Reading program for Incoming Freshmen. Our Open Meetings include office assistants and deans, librarians and faculty.  Programs and supports are created to facilitate the more rigorous inquiry and  research required in the classroom as well as to support reading for fun, personal growth and social networking!

            Always, the highlight of our activities is the visit of the author to our campus.  On April 12 of last year, Philip Gourevitch, editor of The Paris Review and author of We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, addressed the Kingsborough Community. In the years before, Miles Corwin, Jhumpa Lahiri, Edwidge Danticat and James McBride joined us. We await the response from Khaled Hosseini to our invitation for this year.

            One of the most interesting features of KCC Reads has been an online selection process that allows an entire community to participate in book nominations and selection. At the top of this page click on choosing a book and nominations for a clearer idea of how this participatory and inclusive process works.  The final Open Meeting for next year’s selection will take place Thursday March 13, at 3PM in M239. 

            When you pass the bookstore be sure to look at the art posters created by the graphic design students for KCC Reads on this year’s selection, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.

            Other annual KCC Reads events include an Interdisciplinary Panel in which short papers focused on our book selection for the year and grounded in different disciplinary perspectives are presented to us. A print/online journal will include selections of those papers along with student papers and student art.  Every year we now have student-led college-wide Round Table Discussions. We now have a website that we have created as a support for teaching, learning, and research. We extend a special welcome to new faculty to join us at organizational meetings (click events, then see the paragraph Planning Meetings).  We are ready to go with your energy and new ideas and create new programs around the KCC Reads book selection.

           The bookstore has once again extended a 30% discount on our KCC Reads selection.