The Illini Union is sponsoring the “One Book, One Campus” book contest throughout the month of April to unite the campus community and celebrate leisure reading and book discussions.

Students, faculty members, and whoever else is interested can vote for one out of five books they feel is best in the first floor at the Illini Union Bookstore, or online at www.union.uiuc.edu/oboc. The voting, which began April 1, will end on April 25.

Voters are asked to choose their favorite from Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer, Maus by Art Speigelman and A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.

“We will be hosting a special event April 27 at 4 p.m. in the Author’s Corner (of the IUB) to unveil the winner,” said Franne Davis, assistant director in General Books at the Illini Union Bookstore.

Lance Wright, assistant director of the Illini Union, helped launch the contest on campus.

“I was in Denver at a conference where I saw their ‘One Book, One City’ book campaign,” Wright said. “It seemed like the city was really engaged in it.”

Wright said he was interested in building a community around a book.

“I thought it would be really cool to get the University involved in this contest,” he said.

Students and faculty at the IUB met several times this past fall to plan for the contest.

“They all decided to make a list of books people could vote on,” said Franne Davis, assistant director in General Books at the Illini Union Bookstore.

Davis said the Illini Union Bookstore hosted an event Feb. 8 that taught people how to start a book group, as well as how to share books in an informal way.

“After the event, the members involved in planning for the contest narrowed down the book list to five books,” Davis said.

Davis said now all that is left is for people to vote.

“We’ve had 75 people vote so far and that’s a good number considering the contest started less than a week ago,” Wright said.

Davis said the committee members are planning on holding book discussions over the winning book, as well as trying to bring the author of the book to campus.

“A series of program events will be built over the winning book,” she said. “It will be very interesting to see which book is chosen and what events will flow from there.”

Kristina Filippello, freshman in LAS, said she thought the book contest was a good idea to help encourage students to read for fun.

“I read for fun over the summer, but I just haven’t had time during the school year because of all my reading assignments for classes,” she said.

Wright said he hoped the book contest would generate communal involvement in reading.

“I see it as an opportunity to engage with the community – that’s the most exciting part,” he said.

“I think the contest will help people’s interest level in reading to grow and grow,” Davis said.

Wright also said he hopes the contest will encourage students to read outside of class.

“As much as students are busy with reading for classes, I think it is important for them to engage in reading for fun outside of class,” he said.