In the beginning, there was a library....

It may be only a slight exaggeration to say if not for a library, I wouldn’t be here. Some decades ago, in a University of Chicago library, my mother’s good friend, June, introduced her to the dark-haired young man who would become my father.  Books, libraries, and bookstores have played an important part of my life ever since—including an early disappointment at age 5, when a Chicago public library denied me my first card because I couldn’t print my full name.  A second application was successful and a childhood rich with books followed, at home, in libraries, in bookstores in Chicago, in New York, and occasionally abroad.  I never found romance in the stacks myself—that came through another venue—but I did find the world and riches I had not dreamed of, amazing books and authors who cheer, comfort, challenge, stimulate and  move me.   Many of the books I love I sought out because someone recommended them or a teacher assigned them, but many others I came upon by chance in the stacks of a library or a wonderful bookstore.

Join me in my journey as I visit the vast network of libraries—public and private-- in the greater NYC area and as many independent bookstores as I can.  I look forward to sharing the treasure.