Reading time is precious. Don't waste it. Reading bad books, or books that are wrong for a certain time in your life, can dangerously turn you off the activity altogether.

I was mortified by the prospect of becoming hopelessly trapped in someone else's story.

I have no end of failings as a mother, but I have always followed the rules.

The pediatrician must have thought me one of those neurotic mothers who craved distinction for her child but who in our civilization's latter-day degeneracy could only conceive of the exceptional in terms of deficiency or affliction.

The Web, the great time-killer that had replaced conspicuously passive television with its seductive illusion of productivity.

My own apathy is bone chilling.

We'd been assured it wouldn't be painful, though she might experience 'discomfort,' a term beloved of the medical profession that seems to be a synonym for agony that isn't yours.