In 2004, the NEA released a study that book people everywhere could only find depressing. "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America" revealed what we all, anecdotally, suspected: people aren't reading the way they used to.

What most of us in this industry heard was this: books are out of fashion, and—if we don't fix the problem—many of us will be out of work.

So we should be grateful to the NEA for last week's announcement that it will support a reading initiative. The Big Read, a kind of national book club, aims to get communities involved in promoting books backed by the Endowment, which will award grants of up to $40,000. NEA Chairman Dana Gioia positively crowed about the project. "I'm not a betting man," he said in his announcement. "[B]ut I'd wager those who join the Big Read will be hooked on the joys of great literature."

Then why, at the kickoff last week at Carnegie Hall—the Manhattan landmark only a few blocks from some of the largest, most powerful publishing companies in the world—was only one publishing luminary in attendance? Jane Friedman, Harper CEO, told us that she thought it was important to support the program. (It so happens that HC publishes two of the first-round choices, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching Godand Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. The other titles in the first group are Fahrenheit 451 and The Great Gatsby, and the next group is My Antonia, A Farewell to Arms, The Grapes of Wrath and The Joy Luck Club.)

It's hard to disagree with Jane, but I still can't help feeling just a little underwhelmed by the whole business. This is one of those PC moments: just as you won't find anyone who'll say child abuse should be ignored, no one wants to disrespect anything that champions literacy. Oh, there's nothing wrong with the books the NEA has chosen—they're bona fide (if predictable) pieces of "literature." Like the AAP's Get Caught Reading program and the New York Times's recent choice of Toni Morrison's Beloved as the best work of fiction since 1980, the NEA's program has its heart in the right place. But what about its cojones? Where are the books by newer authors, TheKite Runner, say, or TheColor of Water, both of which have fared well and inspired millions in local book groups? Where are the "fun" or even slightly subversive reads, the literate thrillers that might really make readers out of slackers? Maybe (we can hope) they're still to come. "You'd think most educated Americans would have already read at least five of the eight books," one publishing insider opined about the first batch of choices. Problem is, of course, they haven't.

Still, I can't help wondering whether it's the role of the NEA to be the substitute teacher, a stranger granted authority to give a reading assignment. It's like homework. Will even the most well-meaning outreach, participation by individual communities and NEA-provided educational materials really inspire a heretofore reluctant reader to pick up the titles he shunned in high school?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Agree? Disagree? Tell us at www.publishersweekly.com/saranelson