As their friends went off to college, incoming Northwestern students enjoyed an extra few weeks of summer vacation. The One Book, One Northwestern program aimed to make those weeks a bit more productive and spark a conversation among new students at the same time.

Each year, the community-reading program selects a book and sends a copy to all incoming undergraduate students. To coincide with Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his “On the Origin of Species,” One Book organizers selected David Quammen’s 2006 Darwin biography, “The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution.”

Full story: northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2009/03/onebook.html

For more information on the One Book, One Northwestern program, visit northwestern.edu/onebook.