A couple of interesting things have popped out at me while sorting The Books lately. The first surprise came when I looked down at a stack of books and saw my father's name on the cover. Did my father write the book? No, but clearly someone who shares his name wrote a little volume about child-proofing your home back in the 1980s. My brother and I both thought it was hilarious.

The second surprise came while looking over a book about ballet. I was considering giving it away as a gift but wanted to take a closer look first to make sure it was it was the right book for the person I was giving it to. But as I flipped through the pages I noticed the faces in the photos started to look familiar. Then I looked at the background in the pictures and that started to look familiar too.

"No way," I thought, but as I looked closer I saw that I was right. The photos had been taken at the Quinte Ballet School and the faces I recognized were Brian Scott and Len Stepanick, two of my old teachers. It suddenly hit me that it has been about ten years since I've seen either one of them. What a shock to find their pictures in amongst The Books!

Needless to say this is one book that I don't think I'll part with.

The Dangerous Allure of the Public Library

As I make the inventory of The Books I realize that I have hundreds - HUNDREDS- of books on my shelves waiting to be read. So why am I checking books out of the library?