The Gift of Books
I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. As a child, I devoured every Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Judy Bolton mystery I could find. At St. Mary's grade school library, I faithfully worked my way through The Lives of the Saints, discovering that stories could inspire as much as they could entertain.
As I grew older, my literary tastes expanded. I immersed myself in the wonderfully offbeat world of Kurt Vonnegut, reflected deeply on Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, and discovered one of my all-time favorite novels, The Power of Nothingness—an English translation of a remarkable Tibetan murder mystery written by Alexandra David-Néel and her adopted son, Lama Yongden. Translated by the Dutch author Janwillem van de Wetering, it remains one of those rare books that has stayed with me long after I turned the final page. There have been countless others over the years, but these remain among the milestones of my reading life.
My current reading is every bit as varied. I've been captivated by Jean Grainger's beautifully woven, multi-generational stories of Irish families, Lee Jackson's compelling Dunkirk series, Allen Levi's Theo of Golden, Rachel Miranda's Broken Chocolate, Elizabeth Berg's Earth's the Right Place for Love, and I continue to return to Anam Cara by John O'Donohue, finding something new with each reading.
Some books are not meant to be read once and placed back on the shelf.
Every morning, I reach for David Whyte's Consolations or John O'Donohue's To Bless This Space Between Us much as others might draw a tarot card or consult an oracle. I read a single passage and allow it to accompany me through the day. These quiet moments have become a daily ritual, helping to shape my thoughts, deepen my awareness, and gently set the tone for whatever lies ahead.
Books have the extraordinary ability to charm us, challenge us, comfort us, and carry us far beyond the boundaries of our everyday lives.
The greatest writers possess a quiet magic: they invite us into worlds we've never known, introduce us to people we'll never meet, and leave us changed by the journey. For a few hours—or sometimes a lifetime—we are permitted to inhabit another life, another place, another way of seeing. To me, that is one of literature's greatest gifts.