It's the indisputable, most sacred icon of our state, this fine mountain, a part of the Northwest psyche like no other piece of our physical world. Only on special and rare days can we can see it.

But how well do we know it?

Thanks to the Port Townsend Public Library's 2009 Community Read, you don't have to climb Mount Rainier to get to the summit. Instead, grab a cup of hot chocolate topped with delicious whipped cream and kick back with this year's choice: Seattle author Bruce Barcott's The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier,winner of the Washington State Governor's Award.

"We were looking for a book that explores mountains in terms of their beauty, power and natural resources and that would provide readers an opportunity to explore within themselves what mountains mean to them. The Measure of a Mountain does all that. It was a perfect choice," said Port Townsend Library Director Theresa Percy.

"Port Townsend is a special place that provides spectacular views of mountains on three sides - the Olympics to the west, Mount Baker to the north and Rainier to the southeast," she added. "This book also lent itself to so many supporting programs that enhance the book's theme." (See sidebar for a calendar of Community Read events.)

Environmental journalist

"People who have lived in the Pacific Northwest all their lives still stop and stare when Rainier reveals itself," writes Barcott. "The moment crackles with the thrill of Nature being caught unaware, like seeing an eagle snatch a sockeye from the Sound."

Barcott wrote this treatise to Rainier at the beginning of his literary career in 1997. Before that, he'd edited Northwest Passages: A Literary Anthology of the Pacific Northwest from Coyote Tales to Roadside Attractions,but savvy readers also know him as the author of last year's popular book set in Belize titled The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird. He is also a contributing editor to Outside magazine and keeps a blog on the environment and politics at www.brucebarcott.com.

As an environmental journalist, Barcott isn't afraid to go deep or climb high into his story. For one Outside article, he was forced to explore a cave and found himself elbow-deep in bat guano. In Measure of the Mountain, he tells of his own obsession with the biggest peak of the Cascade range. He is enthralled with the mountain like all natives because he is one, born in Everett and a graduate of the University of Washington. As he tells us all he knows about Rainier, he also tells of his own adventures on it. First he attempts to hike the Wonderland Trail. Then, more for his father then for himself, he decides to try for the summit. Along the way, we learn everything there is to know about the mountain's natural and man-made history, including what is both beautiful and dangerous about it.

"Mountains like Rainier are doubly tantalizing because they're such a common part of our personal landscape and yet they sustain such an otherworldly environment. A person could freeze to death, gasping for air, in a summit storm while Seattleites watered their lawns and admired the mountain view. It ain't like here, up there," Barcott writes.

The Port Townsend Public Library has 50 copies of Measure of the Mountain to give away to prospective Community Readers with the intent that when they are done they will pass the book along to another person. There are also 30 copies of the book to check out through the library, and copies for purchase at a 10 percent discount at William James Bookseller, 829 Water St.

The Community Read is sponsored by Friends of the Port Townsend Library, The Leader, and the Port Townsend School District. The project is supported by a grant from the Washington State Library with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.