This is the 6th year Wichita is participating in The Big Read, a celebration of literacy where communities nationwide read the same book each October.
Wichita and 77 other cities will read True Grit by Charles Portis.
First published as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post, the story follows a young woman and her journey to seek retribution for her father's murder.
Director of Wichita Public Libraries Cynthia Berner Harris says many people know True Grit from its two movie iterations, but the book itself is great.
"It’s a classic western," she says. "There are many themes and great stories related that we are looking here in Wichita to take advantage of using that to talk about our own western heritage, and the true grit that the founders of Wichita had to have when they came and settled our community."
The library will discuss and give away copies of the book at a Big Read pre-party Saturday, from 2-4pm, at the Wichita Art Museum.
