UCLA Reading Marathon to Raise Funds for Students

UCLA’s English department will finish its reading marathon this morning, ending a 20-hour effort to raise money for student fellowships and travel.

More than 100 students, staff members and book lovers took turns reading Ralph Ellison’s “The Invisible Man” during the third annual event, which began at noon Thursday, said Darin McGraw, a graduate student who organized the fund-raiser.

Last year, the event raised $8,000 from book sales and donations, he said.

UCLA’s undergraduate English department is the largest in the nation with 1,200 students. “Departments are asked to take more and more financial responsibility for themselves,” said McGraw.

Ellison’s nephew, Michael Ellison Lewis, and comedian Harry Shearer read the first pages of the 1952 novel.