The First Edition

I've loved books since the 5th grade when Sister Michael Damian read to my class from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. This was the first book in C.S. Lewis' Chronicle of Narnia series which I ended up reading annually for years.

I attribute my life-long love affair with books to this incredible teacher who someday I hope to reconnect with and personally thank for passing on her love of reading and learning to me and the other mostly uninterested kids at St. Ignatius grade school. Sr. Michael Damian would eventually leave the convent (after Vatican II) but her legacy is still very much part of my life. She was a member of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, whose provincial house is still serving the sisters at Marylhurst, just outside of Lake Oswego, Oregon. The Holy Names are a generous and loving community of sisters who have changed the lives of thousands of kids since their founding by Mother Marie-Rose Durocher at Longueuil, Quebec in 1843.

I believe you can find answers to any of life's questions in books. I rely on books to inspire me, to prove my points, to refute the arguments of others, to get me from place to place, to fill in my dreams, and to sustain me. I would be lost without my books.

When I was first realizing that I was gay, back in the 1960s, it was a book that brought me comfort and mitigated a lot of the confusion that I was feeling. Across the street from the main branch of the Multnomah County Library, there was a small independent bookstore. Somehow, I found the courage to buy a small book on homosexuality from the man behind the counter. I was sure he wouldn't let a 14-year old boy buy such a book, but sell it he did. I snuck the book home and read it cover to cover in one night. Luckily, for its time, the book was relatively progressive and explained a lot to me about being queer. It alleviated a lot of the pressure that I was feeling about being different.

Thankfully, today, I have a husband who understands my prediliction and seldom complains about the piles of books that cover our coffee table or the row after row of bookshelves lining our upstairs walls. So this blog will serve a couple of purposes for me; it will allow me to write about some of the books that I have read or will eventually read and give me the opportunity to link books and authors to the day-to-day issues I find interesting.