The choice for the Big Read in 2009 is Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon," which made pulp fiction respectable.

Hammett's story of the missing black bird, and the riches and intrigue it represents, is set in 1928 San Francisco. Hammett's depiction of gumshoe Sam Spade and his shady clients was the first detective novel to become a Modern Library title, in 1934.

Idaho's theatrical sleuths, Joe Golden and Tom Willmorth of The Fool Squad, will help promote the 2009 Big Read and are scheming to involve others. A warning to Boise Mayor Dave Bieter: The Fools think you'd make a good Brigid O'Shaughnessy, Spade's femme fatale. "Get in the skirt, mayor," Willmorth cracked at a recent planning meeting. "We're teaching kids to read."

Building a community of readers was the goal when I suggested a "Read the Same Book" project in 2001. Statesman readers backed the idea, and we partnered with the Cabin and the Boise and Ada Community libraries to make Idaho native Marilynne Robinson's "Housekeeping" our first pick.

Robinson was to have been with us at the Egyptian Theatre on Sept. 13, 2001, for the screening of the film version of her book. But the 9/11 attacks prompted cancellation of her flight from Iowa. To our surprise, the theater was full. Every time I'm at the Egyptian, I remember standing on the stage with the Cabin's Paul Shaffer, marveling at how people came together.

We're still at it, and the program has grown. In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts made Boise one of 10 cities in its first Big Read pilot. This year, Ada Community Library has taken over from the Cabin as the program's organizer, led by Mary DeWalt, the library director who has worked on the project since the start.

DeWalt has a great lineup of programs - films, a detective in a gecko suit, a real-life detective, book discussions at libraries, a speaker who'll describe Hammett's San Francisco - between the Jan. 13 kickoff and the final gig March 20 at the Ada Community Library. DeWalt has mysteriously come into possession of a black bird, which will make furtive appearances throughout the Valley.

She's also decided to democratize the selection process for the next book. The 2010 Big Read title will be chosen by readers casting ballots online at IdahoStatesman.com and on paper ballots. "I like the idea of opening it up," DeWalt said.

"It's as if it has a life of its own," said Shaffer, director of the Cabin. "It's fun to watch."

That's what we hoped for in 2001. We've had good luck along the way. Robinson subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her second novel, "Gilead," but we claimed her first. Sandra Cisneros was here in 2005 to discuss "Caramelo." In 2007, Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" was a popular choice.

The NEA will have funded Big Read programs in about 400 communities by 2009. The core notion is to "restore reading to the center of American culture" and reverse the decline in reading literature, especially steep among young adults.

Steve Shaw, who teaches political science at Northwest Nazarene University, was among the first people to support our idea in 2001. Shaw has been busy grading finals and has Alexis de Tocqueville - the author of the 1835 classic study of early American politics, "Democracy in America" - on his mind. Tocqueville saw promise in an America that celebrated both individual and community.

"He warned us about getting shut up in the solitude of our own lives and ignoring our community," Shaw told me. "In a democracy, that's especially troubling. As citizens and neighbors, we have to fight against centrifugal forces, and what better way to converse about things that matter to all of us than by reading books that speak to all of us?"

That's precisely what's happened across Idaho, including places like Cambridge. Back in 2001, June Carver contacted me to support our project, saying, "I bet a lot of other readers out in the boondocks would like to climb on your bandwagon, too."

"Reading in Cambridge has come a long way," Carver says now. "The Big Read lit the fire."

Her monthly book group began with "Under the Tuscan Sun," igniting a tradition of potlucks with food drawn from the titles. For "Seabiscuit," it was race track fare and mint juleps. "It adds a fun dimension," she said.

When Carver's bunch meets Jan. 7, she'll suggest "The Maltese Falcon."

I suspect that many of us know the story from the movie with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet. The film is remarkably loyal to the novel, except it changes the time to 1941, by which time San Francisco had the Bay or Golden Gate bridges. They weren't built when Hammett wrote the novel.

I didn't know that until I finally read the book last weekend. It's a delight, even if you don't know the locale. Hammett's descriptions of the characters - especially their eyes - are marvelous.

Good reading. And remember to vote!

Dan Popkey: 377-6438