Booked Solid

Dear You,

By my rough calculation my brothers and I collectively have been reading books for over a century and a half. We read voraciously -- have done so since we learned how. I noticed that habit again on my recent visit with them. When nothing else beckons, we reach for a book, and a book is always within reach. We have devoured them by the hundreds.

My current book concerns the 1854 cholera outbreak in London -- The Ghost Map. A friend lent me her copy, and I expect quite a few others will read that copy . . . and its clones . . . before it joins other titles down the River Styxx of memory. I love the way my friends and acquaintences think of me when they finish reading something they have enjoyed. I love the way a library card opens the door to a myriad of books wherever I go. I love BookCrossing (it's online!) to see what others are reading, so that when I paw through the remainders tables at Borders or B&N I can do more than "judge a book by its cover" that I've spotted for $3.95 And of course I love yard sales, where I've purchased an entire box of books for a couple of bucks.

So there we were in northern Michigan, my brothers and I, talking about books along with all the other things we have in common. If "reading maketh a whole man," then we were certainly being wholly ourselves.