KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — In partnership with the Knox County and the Knox Co. Library, WBIR will feature a weekly Reader of the Week on WBIR's social media accounts and on Fridays on Live at Five@4. If you'd like to be considered, just register and log your hours with Read City USA and fill out this form.
In 2020, Knox County readers took a journey around the world, collecting stamps and reading books from countries far away to surpass the 2020 Read City USA goal of 500,000 hours.
"That equates to 20 times around the world in 2020. So, we thought that was really good. We were a little worried about reaching the goal, but by golly, we made it. We actually exceeded our goal by 137,000, hours," said Mary Pom Claiborne, communications director for Knox County Public Library.
In 2021, the goal was far bigger: one million hours. And they surpassed that goal.
During the challenge, people tracked the minutes they spent reading through an app on their phones. By tracking the time spent reading, they earned virtual badges and other kinds of rewards, all while helping their community surpass more than 1 million hours.
The 2022 challenge is under the theme “Oceans of Possibility" and the million-hour goal is broken into three nautical challenges to be completed throughout 2022, officials said.
Once you have the app, you just need to open it every week and log your hours so they can count towards Knox County's lofty reading goal!
Library locations will also have activity books where people can write down their reading activities throughout the year.
As of Feb. 12, Knox County Public Library announced it has collectively read over 50,000 hours.
Here's some more good news! Reading books is an important part of the program, but you can also log hours by listening to audiobooks and podcasts.
