When we meet and I discover that we have read and loved the same books, we are instant friends.

I am a reader, a flashlight-under-the-covers, carries-a-book-everywhere-I-go​, don't-look-at-my-Amazon-bill. I choose purses based on whether I can cram a paperback into them, and my books are the first items I pack into a suitcase. I am the person who family and friends call when they need a book recommendation or cannot remember who wrote Heidi. My identity as a person is so entwined with my love of reading and books that I cannot separate the two.

Readers enjoy talking about books almost as much as they like reading.

Our children shouldn't have to wait for adulthood to become wild readers. For many, it will be too late.

I realized that every lesson, conference, response, and assignment I taught must lead students away from me and toward their autonomy as literate people.

Failing to graduate a populace that values reading has long-term consequences for everyone.

If you don't read, I don't know how to communicate with you...I can never express who I am in my own words as powerfully as my books can.