CHICAGO (AP) -- City officials from the mayor on down are hoping Chicagoans in coffee shops, on park benches and on buses and trains are engrossed in the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird."
Harper Lee's powerful novel about racism and courage is the first book chosen by the Chicago Public Library for its annual One Book, One Chicago program. For seven weeks, the library is trying to get as many Chicagoans as possible to read and talk about the same book.
Library officials say the novel is ideal for the program. It's one of the most popular American novels ever, still selling nearly a million paperback copies a year, four decades after it won the Pulitzer Prize.
"We're hoping with this book to grab people's attention," said Mary Dempsey, the city's library commissioner. "We hope it will encourage not just people who read books but those who don't to pick up this book."
The book is "flying off the shelves" of library branches, Dempsey said. She said in anticipation of greater demand the library bought 2,000 copies -- some in Polish and Spanish -- to add to the 1,500 already in stock.
"I just read it for a book club and when I heard about this I'm reading it again," said Maureen Kennedy, 50, of Chicago, who was reading it on a bus on her way home from work at a consulting firm.
In an effort to get Chicagoans to talk about the book, library officials and others have organized a public re-enactment of the novel's dramatic trial, a screening of the Academy Award-winning film and discussion groups at library branches and coffee shops, and on Internet chat rooms.
"It's a good book for discussion groups because it deals with issues not only of racial prejudice, but how human beings relate to one another," said Mayor Richard M. Daley, who counts the book among his favorites.
Mira Puacz, the owner of Polonia Book Store, says that universal message is one reason the novel is so popular with her customers.
"This book is not just about problems between blacks and whites," she said. "It is about problems between people who are different."
Some say discussing a book like "To Kill a Mockingbird" may be an ideal way to confront current issues of race.
"In some ways it's easier to talk about different issues around a work of literature," said Chris Higashi, one of the founders of a program in Seattle that pioneered the idea of the citywide book group. Other such programs have been held in cities from Rochester, N.Y., to Boise, Idaho.
The book focuses on white lawyer Atticus Finch's defense of a black man falsely accused of rape. But the story also says a lot about families, Kennedy says.
"To me it's a primer for parents," she said. "If there were more fathers like Atticus, treating their kids as people, we'd be better off."
Lee, 75, who rarely speaks publicly, lauded the reading program in a letter to the Chicago library system.
"People of all backgrounds and cultures coming together to put their critical skills to work -- nothing could be more exciting," she wrote.
