Project aims to bring readers together

The Daily Inter Lake

Friends and neighbors who read together, build community together.

That's the philosophy behind the One Book Montana project that the Flathead County Library system is participating in this fall.

This is the second year for the program, an offshoot of a program started in Seattle in 1998. The One Book Montana project tries to bring readers together by sponsoring discussions throughout the state on one book selected by a committee.

"When people talk about the text and the language and the people's experience reading it," librarian Katie Boyes said, "I think that's where the community building comes from."

Boyes, the public services librarian at the Flathead County Library, said the project aims to bring readers together with other people they might not meet through their regular activities.

This year's book is "Fools Crow" by James Welch. The book, which won several awards, is set in the 1860s and tells of a young warrior of the Blackfeet tribe who knows his people must grapple with their changing way of life.

The book's themes include coming of age and conflict between communal cooperation and personal freedom, according to a pamphlet on the project.

Project participants should read the book before attending the discussions at libraries throughout the Flathead Valley. Facilitators will help guide discussions.

The book is appropriate for readers high school age and older and local schools have used the book in their curriculums, Boyes says.

The county libraries have several copies of "Fools Crow," but it also is in print and available through book retailers if the libraries run out of copies.

Meeting times are:

• Sept. 28, 7 p.m. at the George C. Ruhle Library in Glacier National Park

• Sept. 29, 7 p.m. at the Bigfork library

• Sept. 30, 7 p.m. at the Whitefish library

• Oct. 2, 2 p.m. at the Kalispell library

• Oct. 5, 7 p.m. at the Columbia Falls library

• Oct. 18, 6:30 p.m. at the Flathead Valley community library

The Lakeside library also will hold a discussion, but the time and date are yet to be decided.

For more information, call Boyes at 758-5713. For more information on the discussion at the college, call 756-3853.