Like "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Flowers for Algernon" appeared in the 1960s and has never gone out of print. And, like "Mockingbird," a Hollywood film version (renamed "Charly") enhanced the book's reputation.

		If you go "Evening with Daniel Keyes" will begin at 7 p.m. Monday at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, Oakland. It's free. A discussion by a panel of five mental health experts will follow, and the author will sign copies of his book. Information: 412-921-1123.

The books have something else in common -- the One Book, One Community project of the Allegheny County Library Association. The program was launched last year with "Mockingbird" and follows this year with "Flowers for Algernon."

Here's where the similarities end. Unlike Harper Lee, the reclusive author of "Mockingbird," Daniel Keyes loves to talk about "Flowers for Algernon" and doesn't mind traveling to do it. On Monday, he'll cap off the two-month program with a presentation and panel discussion at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, Oakland.

"I've had to dig my gloves and winter hat out of storage so I'm ready for Pittsburgh," the 76-year-old author said over the phone from his Boca Raton, Fla., home.

Despite his book's enduring popularity, Keyes believes this is the first time it's been used in a community-wide effort to encourage reading and book discussions.

"I'm a book fiend, and l love librarians, so the news from Pittsburgh was wonderful," he said. "I love the fact that 'Flowers for Algernon' is doing its part to get people reading."

A native of Brooklyn, Keyes said he starting reading at his neighborhood library, but it was his father's job that kept him supplied with books on a weekly basis.

"My father was in the paper recycling business back before they called it recycling. Every week, he'd get a huge pile of discarded books in his warehouse. I'd be allowed to climb up on that mountain of books and grab what I wanted before they were ripped up [for pulping]. I'd go through eight or 10 books a week that way."

Reading -- and its ability to enrich lives -- was the real source of "Flowers for Algernon," Keyes said. When he was student-teaching in a Brooklyn high school following World War II, Keyes discovered that one of his pupils could not read and was humiliated because of his illiteracy.

"Every day I would see him slumped down, his head on his desk. This boy was completely withdrawn because the other kids would make fun of him," he said.

"One day, he told me, 'Mr. Keyes, I want to be smart.' "

Keyes worked with the boy outside of class, teaching him phonics and encouraging him to read. His efforts worked.

"In a few weeks, he was reading. He just bloomed. It was wonderful."

A family problem forced the student out of school for several weeks. When he returned, he had lost his reading ability.

"He had gone back to what he had been. He was lost," said Keyes.

But in that incident, he had found his inspiration. Several years later, Keyes used that experience to create the story of Charlie Gordon, a mentally retarded man who temporarily enjoys a period of exceptional intelligence thanks to a medical experiment.

Published by Harcourt in 1966, "Flowers for Algernon" has since been published in 40 countries and inspired the film that won star Cliff Robertson an Oscar in 1968 for best actor as well as stage and TV versions. It also led to Keyes' 26-year career as a professor of creative writing at Ohio University (he retired in 1992) and a professional writer with three novels, three nonfiction books and a memoir, "Algernon, Charlie and I: A Writer's Journey."

Later this year, Harcourt will reissue "Flowers for Algernon" and the memoir.

Keyes said he plans "to keep my nose to the grindstone and write. Right now, I consider myself just a writer."