"A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention" by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Matt Richtel has been chosen as the required summer reading by Coastal Carolina University's Big Read Committee for all incoming 2015-2016 freshmen.

The book will provide the focus for several activities for incoming freshmen during Welcome Week 2015, including documentary film screenings, guest speakers and discussion panels. Group discussions will take place on Sunday, Aug. 16.

The Big Read Program is designed to encourage cross-disciplinary dialogue between students, professors and the entire CCU community. Since the program was initiated in 2004, its purpose has been to create a singular introductory learning forum across various disciplines and to facilitate creative and critical thinking on a common theme.

"A Deadly Wandering" focuses on a 2006 incident of texting while driving that took the lives of two men. It tells the story of Reggie Shaw, the young man responsible for the accident, and presents research about the increasing and hazardous presence of technology in our lives.

Richtel is a novelist, cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter based in San Francisco for The New York Times. He writes about technology, its impact on society and how it changes the way we work, play and relate to each other. His 2010 series, "Your Brain on Computers," focused on how constant use of our technological devices impacts not only our behavior, but our thought processes and our neurology as well.

For more information on the 2015 Big Read, contact Brianne Parker, chair of CCU's Big Read Committee, at 843-349-6536.