Originally Posted by Wikipedia
In 2000, Tifton officially became the Reading Capital of the World, a distinction based on amassing over 2 million points in the Accelerated Reader program and achieving other goals such as increasing library circulation and reducing illiteracy rates. This distinction was celebrated on Nov. 15, 2000, when a packed high school stadium read aloud from Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat, as a 30-foot Cat in the Hat balloon swayed overhead. The crowd then read silently from books of their own, earning the city dual entries in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people reading together in one place as well as the most reading together silently.