When Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh chose Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" for all high school students to read, students immediately noticed it was short, just 72 pages.

But when the high school students started reading it, they realized it was longer than it looked because this classic piece of Western literature is full of thick description that defies quick reading.

First published in 1899, the novel recounts an adventure on the Congo River.`

The academy's educators chose the book to launch its first "Hillel One Book One School" project, which uses the acronym HOBOS. Hillel has two high schools, one for boys, who are doing the project this fall, and another for girls, who will participate in the spring.

Within each high school, Adam Reinherz, director of student affairs, said, "The idea is they should work through it collectively and communally.

"The students read the book together, discuss it together and then do a community service project together. Through the medium of literature, we can find ourselves united."

Sophomore Daniel Sax said, "It was a good idea. It helps bring our school together."

Hillel is an Orthodox Jewish community day school with 188 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Its boys high school has 22 students in grades nine through 12, and the girls high school has 30 students.

Across the country, "one book" projects have been used to unite communities or schools, including such campaigns by the Allegheny County Library Association. The idea took root in Seattle in the late 1990s.

The version at Hillel includes reading the book, taking a test or writing a reflective paper on it, talking about the book, hosting a college professor to lecture on it and doing a related community-service project.

To choose the book, Mr. Reinherz said, "Basically, an English teacher [Susan Finder] and I got together and asked, 'What is a good book not in our curriculum we think the students would enjoy or, if they didn't enjoy it, they'd have a strong opinion about?"

Mr. Reinherz, who was an English major, read Mr. Conrad's book in college. "I found it to be incredibly enjoyable."

The Congo River setting gave the opportunity to tie the book into a public service project of planting bulbs by South Side Trail along the Monongahela River for Friends of the Riverfront. The effort was in addition to at least 20 hours of community service each Hillel student is required to do each year.

Last week, Hillel students participated in two of the major HOBOS events: listening to a lecture by Myron Taube, English professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh, in the morning and working down by the Mon in the afternoon.

Dr. Taube said he wanted the students to understand that "Heart of Darkness" is a great work.

"To appreciate a great work, they have to come to it with a sense that there is more in here, in this work, than I may have thought the first time I read it. And that even if it's slower to read than a comic book or whatever, it's worth more. What makes it great is there's so much in it."

Dr. Taube, who for about 30 years lectured as many as several hundred students at a time, paced across the front of the shul, or synagogue, of the school, speaking to a much smaller group gathered in two rows.

"This is a very complex work," he told the students. "It's not to be read quickly. Read it slowly and savor it."

Dr. Taube's remarks added to the students' understanding and gave them a sense of what a college lecture is like. He drew comparisons to their lives, noting how important rivers -- such as Congo River and the three local rivers -- are to life.

To one questioner who wondered how Mr. Conrad could write such a short book yet be so wordy, Dr. Taube explained that the author's native language was Polish, but he wrote in English, which made his writing slower and deliberate.

To another who wondered why the desired treasure was ivory rather than gold, Dr. Taube explained its value as a commodity and to the story. "You have to kill in order to get it," he said.

After the session, junior Josef Edelman of Squirrel Hill said Dr. Taube's lecture heightened his interest in the book.

Josef thinks he read it too fast the first time. "I'll have to read it again," he said.

Sophomore Ben Kohane found the book meaningful. "I learned how you shouldn't sacrifice our beliefs and morals for ivory, like in the book, or money."

He said the professor "explained the book in a whole new way."

Tom Baxer, director of Friends of the Riverfront, welcomed the students' help but said he's never read the book.

"I'm going to have to get a copy now," he said.

AT SCHOOL ONE OF A SERIES