‘Drop Everything and Read’

USD’s effort to revive the love of reading

SATVIKA NITYA / ASST. A&C EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

The hectic and buzzing nature of college schedules has left many students with little time to take part in leisurely reading. 

In an attempt to fix this and resuscitate the joy of reading stories for pleasure, USD introduced its first-time participation in San Diego’s ‘One Book, One San Diego’ program through the reading initiative ‘Drop Everything and Read One Book.’

This initiative aims to promote a community reading experience at USD by urging students and faculty to read the same book between Oct. 18 and Nov. 15. 

Apart from a large group reading experience, the initiative plans to conclude the event with a culminating reading circle on Nov. 15 at the Copley Library. This is a space for all participants to come together and engage in meaningful conversations about their journey while reading the book.

Though ‘Drop Everything and Read One Book’ is new and unique to USD, its origins lie in the literary program ‘One Book, One San Diego’ (OBOSD). 

Now in its 16th running year, OBOSD is a partnership between San Diego’s public media service KPBS and over 80 public libraries, service organizations and educational institutions. 

Every year, a list of book selections for the community reading experience is released by OBOSD for different age groups according to their relevance, storylines and thematic importance. 

For this year, the selections were “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett for adults, “The Magic Fish” by Trung Le Nguyen for teens and “We Are Water Protectors’’ by Carole Lindstrom for kids.

‘Drop Everything and Read One Book’ is USD’s first-time collective effort to participate in OBOSD. But this isn’t the first effort towards promoting reading on campus. 

Up until last year, the ‘USD Just Read!’ program promoted by the Center for Educational Excellence (CEE) aimed to bring together the USD community to read and learn, through a variety of authors’ works, about a central social justice issue.   

But the unfortunate end to ‘USD Just Read!’ led to the involvement of the Copley Library, CEE and the Center for Inclusion and Diversity (CID) to start a bigger program and allow OBOSD to plant its roots on campus. 

USD’s Head of Access and Outreach Services and Liaison to the Department of History Christopher D. Marcum was instrumental in organizing the ‘Drop Everything and Read One Book’ initiative through his position on the selection committee for the adult section of OBOSD.

“I have been a part of OBOSD since 2018 and this past summer, I wanted to think about ways to get USD more engaged in this initiative,” said Marcum. “Community reading is a great way to bring communities together, especially when it’s creating dialogue about important issues and topics. With a lot of help from Rhea Webb from CEE and Dr. Regina Dixon-Reeves from CID, we were able to make it happen.”

From the three categories for OBOSD, USD’s choice for ‘Drop Everything and Read One Book’ was the adult selection “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett because of its grippingly important themes.

“The book deals a lot with the idea of identity —  how we form it — and race as a social construct,” explained Marcum. “This is a book that has important themes that I think the students, faculty and staff at USD can engage in, because it talks about topics that impact our lives.”

Tables with free copies of “The Vanishing Half” are set up in front of Copley Library and Maher Hall from 1:00-1:30 p.m. every Tuesday throughout the initiative’s run. 

This leaves Nov. 15 as the last day that students can get their hands on the book, as well as participate in a raffle to win a “swag bag,” courtesy of Copley, the CEE and CID.

USD sophomore and novel enthusiast Monzerrat Quevedo was one of the students to participate in ‘Drop Everything and Read.’

“I haven’t sat down and just read a book in a while,” said Quevedo. “Knowing that multiple people are [going to] have knowledge of the same book is such a comforting thought. We can sit down, talk about our favorite parts, what you hate and our favorite quotes, it’s nice to have that in common with people who live in San Diego.”

Marcum also agreed that taking a break between classes and reading can be beneficial for students, especially during the stress of exams, projects and other school work. 

“I want students to take a breath and quite literally drop everything and just read a book,” said Marcum. “Even if you’re having a busy day, take a moment, breathe and read something.”

Participants can meet their fellow readers at the final reading circle event scheduled to occur on Nov. 15 in the Copley Library at 2:00 p.m. 

With prizes, discussions and refreshments, the final event provides a collective space for people to fully grasp and enjoy the community reading experience.

 Those unable to attend the final in person event on the University of San Diego’s campus can register for a virtual reading circle on Nov. 17 on  www.sandiego.edu/news.