UCSB Reads 2026
The UCSB Reads 2026 book selection will be announced in fall 2025. The program will kick off in early 2026 with a free book giveaway for UCSB students. Throughout the winter and spring quarters, the Library will sponsor a variety of free learning, experiential, and social events to explore the book’s themes. UCSB Reads 2026 will culminate with a public lecture by the author(s) of the selected book in the spring. Instructors are encouraged to incorporate the chosen book into their winter or spring courses. This public lecture is presented in partnership with UCSB Arts & Lectures.
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About UCSB Reads
UCSB Reads is an award-winning program that brings the campus and Santa Barbara communities together to read a common book that explores compelling issues of our time.
The program is sponsored by UCSB Library and the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and was started in 2007 by the Library and Executive Vice Chancellor Gene Lucas. Each year, a committee of faculty, staff, students, and community partners convenes to select an intellectually stimulating, interdisciplinary book by a living author that appeals to a wide range of readers and can be incorporated into the UCSB curriculum.
For more information, visit guides.library.ucsb.edu/ucsbreads or email Sara Kelly, Exhibitions & Events Manager, sarakelly@ucsb.edu.
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UCSB Reads Books
2025: The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay
2024: Your Brain On Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
2023: Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery
2022: Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
2021: When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Cullors and asha bandele
2020: Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush
2019: The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
2018: Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
2017: Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
2016: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
2015: Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman
2014: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan
2013: Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
2012: Moby Duck: The True Story of 28,000 Bath Toys Lost at Sea, and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools--Including the Author--Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn
2011: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
2010: Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
2009: Ethics for the New Millennium by Dalai Lama
2008: The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli
2007:Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert
UCSB Reads 2026 Advisory Committee
Christoffer Bovbjerg: Associate Director, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center
Meghan Bush: Associate Director, Arts & Lectures
Allyson Dahl: UCSB Undergraduate Student
Christopher Dean: Faculty, Writing
Brian Donnelly: Faculty, English
Rimika Jaiswal: UCSB Graduate Student
Sara Kelly: UCSB Library
Kenneth Kosik: Faculty, MCDB
John Latto: Faculty, College of Creative Studies
Christine Le Forge: UCSB Library
Shirley Geok-lin Lim: Faculty, English
Rebecca Metzger: UCSB Library
Emily Perez: UCSB Undergraduate Student
Heather Silva: UCSB Library
Johannes Steffens: UCSB Library
David Stein: Faculty, History
Emily Teter: Health & Wellness
Hangping Xu: Faculty, East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies
