The Great Gatsby is This Year's Big Read

This year's Big Read will give the Carroll County community the opportunity to be transported back into a golden era between two world wars when the economy boomed, women wore flapper dresses and hot jazz music kept speakeasies open into the early morning hours: the roaring 1920's.

The Friends of the Neva Lomason Memorial Library recently announced that the book for next month's 2011 Big Read will be F. Scott Fitzgerald's great American novel The Great Gatsby.

The month of Gatsby-themed events formally kicks off on March 4 with a screening of the 1974 film that bears the book's name at the University of West Georgia's Education Center. The film, which was adapted for the big screen by Francis Ford Coppola, stars Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby, Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan and Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway. The 1974 film is widely considered to be the best screen adaptation of the book and is notable for winning two Oscar awards, three BAFTA awards and a Golden Globe in 1975.

If the screening doesn't put you in the Gatsby mindset, the Friends of the Library have just the solution, a roaring '20s-themed dance scheduled for March 12 at WPA Center in Carrollton from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. In addition to music and costumes, there will be an instructor on hand to help participants learn the signature moves from the era, such as the Charleston, the hop and the lindy.

For insight and critical discussion of the book, the Friends of the Library is hosting a book club luncheon on March 16 at Sunset Hills Country Club at 11:30 a.m. Tickets are $20.00.

Throughout much of the last century, The Great Gatsby has been a staple of high school literature curriculums, giving many young minds a first taste of literary fiction, and the month-long Big Read wouldn't be complete without an activity specially geared toward teenagers and their families. The Friends have planned a scavenger hunt for items related to the book that will take place in downtown Carrolton's Adamson Square on SaMarch 19 at 1 p.m. Participants should meet in front of Horton's Bookstore.

The Friends of the Library have also scheduled a lecture by noted F. Scott Fitzgerald and Lost Genration scholar Dr. Kirk Curnutt, a professor and chair of the English department at Troy University's Montgomery Campus. Curnutt has distinguished himself with books such as The Cambridge Introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Oxford Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Coffee With Hemingway and The Critical Response to Gertrude Stein. The program will be held in the Neva Lomason Memorial Library's Cultural Arts Gallery March 20 at 2:30 p.m.

For more information on this year's Big Read, contact the Neva Lomason Memorial Library at (770) 836-6711, or visit its website at www.wgrl.net.