If you walked into Strozier Library anytime between ten in the morning on Tuesday, October 7th and four in the afternoon on Wednesday, October 8th, you were greeted with an unusual sight: a small seating area, a table laden with treats and soda, and someone at a podium reading aloud from a book by the late Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. What you might not have realized is that this was happening continuously for over 30 hours.
You also might not have known that this was FSU’s fourth annual marathon reading, an event in which various people (including Skype volunteers in England, Spain, Italy, and Panama) read a novel aloud from beginning to end over a day or more. Previous books have included Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (around 700 pages), Bleak House by Charles Dickens (around 900 pages), and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (also around 900 pages, and could be read in either English or Russian). This year, readers took on two classics by Márquez – One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, both around 400 pages long. Anyone could participate by signing up in advance for a 15-minute reading time or by simply volunteering in person (like I did!), and volunteers had the option to read in either English or Spanish. Adjunct professor and Office of Faculty Recognition director Margaret Wright-Cleveland organized the event. She was also present for most of it, tweeting updates and taking pictures of nearly every reader.
A reader from Panama takes a turn. A large screen near the podium allowed Skype participants to read to listeners in Strozier.
The last pages were read by members of FSU’s softball team!
After Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez died this April at the age of 87, it seemed appropriate that two of his most beloved works be selected for this year’s reading marathon to celebrate his life, legacy, and language. Márquez was both renowned by critics and cherished by the public, a rare and impressive feat for a writer. His words are simultaneously beautifully composed and relatable to virtually any human being. He is also credited with introducing the literary world to magic realism, a strange and captivating genre in which the real and extraordinary converge; his stories are full of levitating priests, wandering ghosts, epic romances, and flowers falling from the sky. At the same time, much of his work is imbued with commentary on very real political issues of his time, which can still be recognized and appreciated by readers of our generation.
Audiences listening to the readers were small – usually not more than about ten – but they were constantly changing, with new people settling in when others were taking their leave. The beginning and end of a book garnered the largest crowds. There was something undeniably powerful about it – all kinds of people from different parts of our college community coming and going, just taking some time to read to others or listen to someone read to them. Just ordinary people, all gathered around to enjoy the simple happiness of a good story.