I’m not sure if this has been done in academia before, but it looks like the library at the Rochester Institute of Technology is sponsoring a “one book” reading program, similar to the ones that many communities have participated in.

On the informational page it describes how the library released 100 copies of Leif Enger’s novel Peace Like a River into the community, and says “students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to read the book, write comments in the margins, and sign and date the inside back cover,” before passing on the book to someone else or bringing it back to the library for redistribution. I think that’s a nifty idea. Often reading someone else’s notes in the margins of a book drives me crazy, but if I was reading a book as part of a community building exercise like this, I’m sure I would enjoy seeing who else read my copy of the book and what they thought about it.