I love to read. Always have. Anything and everything especially when I was younger and had time and definitely pre computer days! Reading is about escape, learning, growing, crying, laughing and doing nothing. What's better than a good book?

The first book I ever owned was "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss. That was the first book my sister Lynn could read by herself and the first book my niece Molly read to me by herself. I loved "Harold and the Purple Crayon" and "Ferdinand the Bull." I started reading the newspaper in kindergarten. In the first grade I read 132 books, still have my bookworm pins and certificate! The pins were orange and really cool. My niece Molly and nephew Charlie are readers too.

I preferred reading to television as a kid for a long time, except when it was time for the Man from Uncle. Nancy Drew was a favorite, so were Happy Hollister books, "Johnny Tremain" and later on "To Kill a Mockingbird". I remember lying in bed with the flu reading "Ivanhoe", that was when I learned that books were always much better than the movie even when I thought the leading man was handsome. Errol Flynn was beyond cool.

"One Hundred Years of Solitude" is my most cherished read of adulthood or whatever this life is. It has been at least 20 years since I read it and though I often plan on reading again just haven't. While on vacation in Cartegna, Colombia back in 1982 we passed through a small town. I told one of the people I was with how much it reminded me of that book and he responded that it was Gabriel Garcia Marquez's hometown. I don't know if it really was but it felt right.

I used to complete anything I started to read but don't do that any longer. Some examples of that are "The Shipping News" and "The English Patient". I tend to read in themes...mysteries by women only, fiction by women with "A" names, baseball or "discover" an author and then read anything I can find. Did that with Robertson Davies. Short stories are okay and will do in a pinch.

I don't seem to find the time to read as much as I would like these days. I just read "A Civil Action" by Michael Herr and loved it. I was motivated to read it because the film was being shot in Boston. Don't know why I waited so long. "Snow Falling on Cedars" is a lovely book with a sense of place and mood and a well told story. "Wicked" was way good too. The "Queen and I" by Sue Townsend is a book I bought at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. It is very, very funny and don't think it is available in the US but if you see it, read it. Julia Alvarez and Oscar Higuelas are two favorites as well.

Book stores are safe and comfortable places. I can spend hours browsing, reading this and that. I do have a long list of books and authors I want to read. In my ocassional clutter cleaning frenzies I come across slips of papers with names of books or authors for my list. My friend Spaulding sends me names of books to read all the time. I trust his judgement and taste. We've both come across some not so good reads but let's not go there. There are reputations at stake. He agrees with me about "Snow Falling on Cedars". So does Dick.Mac. And who's more literate than the two of them?

I can always add more suggestions to the lists.

What's more depressing than going to a book store without your glasses?