Park City Library and Park City Municipal’s Planning Department will join forces for this month’s Green Reads Book Club discussion that is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 4.
The free event, which will be held in the Park City Library’s Community Room, 1255 Park Ave., will include a community discussion with Paul Bogard, author of “End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light,” and look at the importance and benefits of protecting the night sky, said Kate Mapp, Park City Library’s adult services librarian.
“The event is an in-person event for attendees, who will meet physically to discuss the book, and Paul will tune in remotely and join our group live,” she said. “He lives in the midwest, and we thought this would be a great way to have him join our book-club discussion.”
Although there will be no live-streaming link during the event, the library will set up a link to a recording afterwards, according to Mapp.
“People who weren’t able to attend will be able to contact the library for the link,” she said.
Part of the discussion will cover the dark sky code the Park City Council adopted in 2021, which calls for fully shielded and down-directed outdoor lights with bulbs 3,000 degrees Kelvin or less by the end of the year, Mapp said.
“The Planning Department reached out to the library to see if we could partner on a program to help educate the community about dark skies and the ordinance,” she said. “That started me thinking about what kind of book we could tie that into, and this one has been on my radar for quite a while.”
Bogard published “End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light” in 2014, and the book examines areas from the brightest, such as the Luxor Hotel beam in Las Vegas, to the darkest, and it also looks at the science of darkness, Mapp said.
“He talks a lot about the history of how we view light and darkness and how it’s a new concept for humans, even though there are many animals who rely on darkness,” she said. “It’s an older book, but it’s so pertinent and relevant to what we’re looking at in our community.”
Mapp read the book in 2014 when it was first published.
“I’ve wanted to bring Paul out to Park City for a while, but the schedules never worked out,” she said. “So, when the Planning Department approached us, I thought it could be a perfect fit.”
Since Bogard published “End of Night,” he published a children’s book, “What If Night?” illustrated by Susan Holden, in 2022, and he also contributed to and edited “Solastalgia: An Anthology of Emotion in a Disappearing World” that was published in 2023, Mapp said.
“It will be neat to hear him discuss his book and anything new and relevant he has discovered since publishing ‘End of Night,’” she said. “Then we’ll tie things back to how those things relate to our community and how we can take similar concepts in the books and apply them to our lives. We’ll also have representatives from the Planning Department in attendance, so they will be able to answer questions as well.”
The Green Reads program started when the Park City Library launched its Sustainability Resource Center on Earth Day, April 22, 2022, Mapp said.
The center features a rotating display of books and information that focuses on different sustainability themes, she said.
“The purpose for Green Reads, which we do quarterly, is for the library to search for an organization who supports specific sustainability programs and then partner with them on a book that speaks to their mission and relates to our community,” Mapp said.
Mapp knows many people who are interested in the Green Read topics may not have time to read a whole book.
“So, what’s neat is you don’t have to do that before participating in the discussion,” she said. “If you do, great, but we really want you to come and contribute to the discussion. So, we provide access to other formats such as podcasts and articles. That way people will be able to attend the discussion knowing even just a little bit of the topics.”
The podcast for this quarter’s Green Reads is “The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast: 1KHO 240: The Importance of Bright Days and Dark Nights | Paul Bogard, Podcast: The End of Night” and can be found on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1kho-240-the-importance-of-bright-days-and-dark/id1448210728?i=1000643561097.
And the article, “Bringing Back the Night: A Fight Against Light Pollution” can be accessed by visiting e360.yale.edu/features/bringing_back_the_night__a_fight_against_light_pollution.
“We do have books available for checkout, and we have eBooks available on Libby,” Mapp said.
Green Reads: ‘End of Night’ with Paul Bogard
- When: 7 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 4
- Where: Park City Library’s Community Room, 1255 Park Ave.
- Cost: Free
- Web: parkcity.events.mylibrary.digital