A warning to all New Yorkers: If everyone on the subway seems to be reading the same book this spring, you're not going crazy.
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New Yorkers just selected a book for the entire city to read in America's biggest book club
After a month of voting, New York City residents have decided to read "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
New York City residents have picked "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as the winning book for the " target="_blank"One Book, One New York" program.
The program encourages all city residents to read the same book over the next several months, in an effort to revitalize small book stores and create a greater sense of community among the city's readers. The city has also donated 1,000 copies to branches of the New York Public Library for readers to check out.
Small meetups will take place throughout the city, culminating in a June event at the NYPL's main branch, where Adichie will be present.
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The initiative allowed New Yorkers in all five boroughs to vote on one of five books to start reading in the month of March. Residents voted online or in kiosks in subway stations through the end of February.
Other cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia have hosted community reads in the past, though none have created as large a book club as New York now might.
In partnership with Buzzfeed, the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment turned to those other cities to suggest books for people to read. It also consulted with heads of local libraries, publishers, and academics, the New York Times reports.
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