The Big Read is here!

What page are you on? Local schools, museums, businesses, institutions and libraries have teamed up as one big community to provide something even bigger: The Big Read. Starting tonight, you can pick up one of 50 free copies of The Maltese Falcon at Missoula Art Museum's First Friday reception. Want to get started earlier? We have over 200 copies of the book to give away at the Missoula Public Library Accounts Desk.

If you aren't able to grab a free copy in time, don't worry: we have several copies in different formats available for checkout.

We're also going to give away copies of the book to the weekly winners of our Find the Falcon contest, which will kick off on Monday October 4th and continue through November 12th.

Here's what's happening during the first week of the Big Read (click the links for more information):

October 1 - November 15: The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of

October 4 - November 15: Online Book Discussion

October 4 - November 13th: Find the Falcon Scavenger Hunt

October 5 - October 12: MCAT Film Workshop & Open Studio

October 5: KICKOFF! Spade and the City -- A Tour of Noir

October 6: Inside The Maltese Falcon

October 9: CSI Presentation (with "The Van")

October 10: Noir Downtown Walking Tour

Special thanks to major local Big Read Missoula sponsors Missoula Art Museum, Missoula County Public Schools, Allegra Print & Imaging & Signs Now, and Humanities Montana. The Little Read is sponsored in best part by the Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation.

Additional Big Read support and partnerships include DirecTV, Otis Elevator Company, First Security Bank, Missoula Federal Credit Union, Norco Products, Fact & Fiction, Shakespeare & Co., Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, MOLLI – Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at University of Montana, MCAT, Poverello Center Inc., Missoula County Sherriff’s Office, Barnes & Noble, Book Exchange, Missoula Senior Center, Kelly Cooper, UM School of Theatre and Dance, Loyola High School, Top Hat Bar, Randi Mysse Ristau Photography, Friends of the Missoula Public Library, and Missoula Public Library Foundation. Partner libraries include Drummond School & Community Library and the Mansfield Library at UM.

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.

A Big Read for Missoula

What if all the residents of Missoula and surrounding towns read the same book? That’s Missoula Public Library’s plan this fall. The library is proud to announce it will offer The Big Read in October and November, orchestrating a community-wide reading of Dashiell Hammett’s classic detective novel The Maltese Falcon.

Missoula is one of 268 communities across the nation participating in The Big Read this year thanks to a $17,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and additional support from local businesses and organizations. The Missoula community will celebrate The Maltese Falcon with a full calendar of events including book chats hosted all over the county, staged readings, movie screenings, children’s events, mystery games, a Find the Falcon scavenger hunt, Festival of the Book mystery writers workshops, and lots more from Oct. 5-Nov. 13.

The Big Read kicks off with “Spade and the City: A Tour of Noir,” on Oct. 5, offering a virtual trip through Hammett's San Francisco featuring music, food and Bay Area Hammett expert Don Herron.

Plus, the library will be giving out more than 2,200 copies of The Maltese Falcon at the library and locations throughout the county. Younger readers won’t be left out – they can get a copy of The Falcon’s Malteser or The Malted Falcon, our Little Read selections.

Special thanks to major local Big Read Missoula sponsors Missoula Art Museum, Missoula County Public Schools, Allegra Print & Imaging & Signs Now, and Humanities Montana. The Little Read is sponsored in best part by the Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation.

Additional Big Read support and partnerships include DirecTV, Otis Elevator Company, First Security Bank, Missoula Federal Credit Union, Norco Products, Fact & Fiction, Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, MOLLI – Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at University of Montana, MCAT, Poverello Center Inc., Missoula County Sherriff’s Office, Barnes & Noble, Book Exchange, Missoula Senior Center, Kelly Cooper, UM School of Theatre and Dance, Loyola High School, Top Hat Bar, Friends of the Missoula Public Library, and Missoula Public Library Foundation. Partner libraries include Drummond School & Community Library and the Mansfield Library at UM.

“It’s exciting how many Missoula groups and organizations have volunteered their time and services to take part in this community-wide program,” said Big Read Missoula committee chair Molly Ledermann, of Missoula Public Library. “This is an amazing opportunity for everyone to share a reading and cultural experience.”

To date, the NEA has funded more than 800 Big Read programs in the nation’s towns and cities. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. Support for The Big Read is provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Transportation for The Big Read is provided by Ford.