One book initiatives: Denver edition

Once again the mayor's office of cultural affairs is promoting a One Book One Denver city-wide book club, this time centered around a reader-chosen title, To Kill a Mockingbird. While I have nothing against the book itself, I think it's unfortunate that a book almost every kid in high school has already read is the lynchpin for municiple-based literature. Will people, en masse, enjoy revisiting this novel, showing up at venues to discuss its value and values? Is there anything new to say about TKAM?

The city received a $20,000 NEA grant for the program (link to Big Read, which lists all the grants to all the cities). More valuable, I believe, would be a city-wide book festival that brings in authors and showcases the entire gamut of Colorado's literary orgs, including big and small presses, innovators in the fields of print and epublishing, and more. We have universities and private writing schools--all could play a big role in showcasing the book in all its forms. I've heard all the arguments against the festival, based on its past success (or non-success), but I think more readers and more citizens would benefit from the festival than from rehashing a novel--no matter how beautiful--it has already read.