"Seattle Reads" gets $100,000 from author James Patterson

The Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library has won the top prize from the James Patterson PageTurner Awards — $100,000 — for its groundbreaking "Seattle Reads" program.

The PageTurner awards are funded by Patterson, a mega-best-selling author of thrillers, to "innovative individuals and organizations that go to extraordinary lengths to spread the joy of books and reading across the country." It distributed 39 awards this year — among other winners of the cash grants, totaling $500,000, is the organization 826 National, a nonprofit founded by author Dave Eggers and others which provides reading and writing opportunities to young people and which has a branch in Seattle.

The "Seattle Reads" program, conceived of by former SPL librarian Nancy Pearl, has been widely emulated for its emphasis on an entire city reading and discussing one book. More than 450 locations throughout the country now host their own "One Book" events.

Mary Ann Gwinn, Seattle Times book editor