Laconia Reads kicking off next month – share a book with your neighbors

LACONIA — This was supposed to be a big year for Celebrate Laconia. The nonprofit advocacy organization had planned a series of public talks which would bring members of the community together to discuss various important topics. Of course, concerns about coronavirus threw community togetherness quickly out of fashion.

There’s more than one way to bring people together, though, and so Celebrate Laconia – in partnership with the Belknap Mill, Prescott Farm, Laconia Public Library, Laconia Links, Laconia Rotary and the Belknap Economic Development Council – is launching Laconia Reads, an initiative to bring people together, at least virtually, around literature.

Elizabeth Howard, who moderated the first Laconia Talks event in November, is again kicking off this new program, and she has selected one of the cornerstones of American literature: Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The program will start on May 1.

Twain’s classic novel, set in the 1840s along the banks of the Mississippi River, might seem an unusual choice, but Howard said there are a couple of local connections. First, Twain spent two summers in New Hampshire, renting a home – and some kittens – with a view of Mount Monadnock. Second, during the current restoration of Laconia’s Colonial Theater, a poster was found for the 1945 film, “The Adventures of Mark Twain.”

Jared Guilmett, vice-president of Celebrate Laconia, said the organization, thanks to help from community partners, was able to raise enough money to acquire some physical copies of the novel. But, because the book is in the public domain, it is also available to download for free. There are various ways to download digital copies of the book, including through the Laconia Public Library’s website.

Guilmett said he was intrigued when Howard told him the title she was thinking of using for the project.

“I haven’t thought of it in years, I am looking forward to reading it again,” Guilmett said. Many people have read it as children, but there would be new things to see in it from an adult’s perspective. “It’s also a way to bring one of the classics of American literature back to the forefront of family life in the community.”

“You will love it,” said Howard, who called the book a pleasure to re-visit. “I laughed out loud, I couldn’t put it down.”

Howard has designed a 14-week program for the community read, with new notes and chapters to read being posted each Friday. The week’s posting will appear in the Laconia Links newsletter, the Laconia Daily Sun, and on Celebrate Laconia’s channels.

“With a normal community read, people would get together,” Howard noted. That’s not advisable for the time being, but she said that it could be possible, by the end of the program, to host a screening of the 1945 film about Mark Twain, or a public art exhibit of works created by community members as a response to the book.

Until then, virtual ways to connect will suffice. Howard will encourage people to record themselves reading a chapter or two, and to post their recordings on social media. Activities will also be suggested to give families and individuals a way to interact with the story.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was a flop when it was first published in 1876. However, in the decades that followed it became one of Twain’s best-selling books, and is now considered a foundational work of American literature. How does it read almost a century-and-a-half after its first publication? Join Howard and Celebrate Laconia to find out.

Howard noted that other projects, which use online platforms when physical meetings are not possible, have sometimes spread far beyond their original intended audience. “This could be virtual, this could go way beyond New Hampshire,” she said, though she added, “I’m trying to focus attention on Laconia, that’s my goal. I really want to get this out there.”