The Impossible Will Take A Little While: a citizen’s guide to hope in a time of fear, edited by Paul Rogat Loeb, is a provoking collection of poems, stories, and essays by selected authors along with section introductions written by Loeb himself, and is Rochester Community and Technical College’s "Common Book" selection for the 2006-2007 academic year.

As the "Common Book," The Impossible will be integrated into the course curriculum of a number of RCTC classes covering a wide variety of disciplines. The "common book concept," or approach, puts forth a book (or books), usually chosen by a campus interdisciplinary committee, based upon criteria intended to support and enrich the campus’ intellectual dialogue and debate.   The goal of the process is to foster and create a sense of scholarly community and shared experience.

More specifically, the Common Book Program at Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) promotes critical thinking, reading and writing across the curriculum, exposes RCTC students to diverse cultural materials, opinions, and experiences, and enables students to seek and develop meaningful relationships between themselves, their classes, and their instructors. We believe that Loeb's book is well-suited for this goal.

In addition, the Common Book Program promotes student-centered learning and programs such as convocations, discussion groups, webpage resources, sharing of original sample work, etc. In the past, the Program has allowed students to meet and interact with common book authors.

The materials created and posted on the Common Book website serve as a guide and resource for students and faculty reading The Impossible.