Rob Varela / Star staff 8/26/07 Thousand Oaks. CLU freshman Samantha Anderson, 18, of Brooklyn, N.Y., center takes part in a discussion about the book "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," which was part of theFreshman Year Experience program, which requires first-year students to read the book. The discussion was also linked to the Thousand Oaks One City One Book program.

The Thousand Oaks library will launch a new program next month to help bring the community together.

More than 300 copies of the same book have been checked out of the library as part of the program, said librarian Margaret Douglas.

"This community is full of a lot of really smart people interested in books and literature," Douglas said. This project "has blossomed in a way we never imagined."

"Thousand Oaks Reads: One City, One Book" is a reading program that encourages the entire city to read the same book. The book selection is Jonathan Safran Foer's "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close."

The postmodern novel is about a boy who loses his father in the Sept. 11 World Trade Center collapse and journeys to locate the lock for a key he found hidden in his father's belongings.

"There were a lot of other books we could have done, but this one appeals to so many people," Douglas said.

The program, sponsored in part by Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library and California Lutheran University, will run from Sept. 15 through Oct. 14, featuring community book discussions and special events related to the book.

"We didn't dream up the idea. Libraries around the country have done this for years," Douglas said.

Special events will include a panel discussion with CLU faculty, film screenings, and an afternoon reading and discussion with the book's author.

"I thought it would be a good way to incorporate CLU students into the community, in a way never done before," said CLU history professor Michaela Reaves.

Reaves is the faculty director for the university's semester-long Freshman Year Experience program, which requires that all first-year students read a novel before they arrive on campus.

The school's 455 freshmen were sent a copy this year of "Extremely Loud" with questions to review before a book discussion at the school orientation.

Freshman Samantha Anderson, 18, recently moved to California from Brooklyn, N.Y., where she witnessed the events on Sept. 11.

The book "really touched me. I especially relate because I was there," she said.

A program that brings the entire community together to read "Extremely Loud" is a great idea, Anderson said.

"It gives everyone a chance to share something that we all have in common," she said. "It's really important, especially in a community like this."

The 10 book discussions at various locations around the city will be the heart of the program, Douglas said.

"All (people) have to do is show up. They don't have to register and it's completely free," she said.