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Professor Debora Shuger of medieval literature was one of the readers at the 26-hour marathon hel

Wind rustles gently through the blossoming trees in the Rolfe Sculpture Garden as undergraduates, graduates, alumni and professors congregate and listen to people taking turns reading George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” aloud.

This warm community is officially called the Marathon Reading, an endeavor organized by the UCLA Department of English.

Now in its ninth year, the event, hosted by a committee of approximately 10 graduate students, aims to raise money to fund academic fellowships for students in the English department.

For 26 hours, from noon Thursday until 2 p.m. today, students, faculty, staff, celebrities and high school students read the chosen book aloud.

Participation has been particularly active this year, as reading slots Thursday were completely filled from noon until 7 p.m. The group estimated having over 200 readers.

“There has been a very enthusiastic response from a number of stage and film actors (this year),” said Jon Naito, a graduate student and coordinator of the marathon.

Celebrity guests include various stars of theater and television from all over the world, such as David Birney, Sheelagh Cullen, Charles Davis and Joe Herold, to name a few.

Fund raising has been promising, drawing in over $7,000 before the actual marathon. Money also continues to come in during the marathon through donations, as well as book and T-shirt sales.

An e-mail vote among graduate students prompted the committee to choose the book “Middlemarch,” a time-honored piece of literature.

Since the group hadn’t chosen a work by a female author since 2001, choosing this book was something that “needed to be done,” said Heather Wozniak, a graduate student in English and Marathon Reading Committee member.

The committee has been planning the reading since fall quarter, with intensifying commitment and execution in the past two months.

Reading will conclude this afternoon, finishing with two academic panels discussing issues of feminism, medicine, transcendentalism, gender and class inspired by the novel.

These discussions will be led and moderated by UCLA students, as well as Professors Elizabeth McClure, from the University of Maryland, College Park, Mary Bell, from the University of Arizona, and Lauren Smith, from the University of Miami.

Some undergraduate student readers participated because of encouragement from Naito, who teaches sections of English 4HW. Yasmin Krishnamurthy, one of his students who participated, admitted not having read Eliot’s work, “but now I want to.”