Day 84, March 25

Yesterday I clicked on an AOL article entitled "What every house needs." Written by an interior decorator, the article, I supposed, would list such things as quality furniture accented by well-chosen accessories.

I was surprised and delighted when the author named books as an essential. "Without books, a home has no soul."

I've written before about my passion for books. I read them, I write them, I devour them. From the kitchen to the bedrooms to the living and family rooms and even the garage, our home is filled with books.

Books do not march across the shelves in an orderly fashion. Instead, they meander. Paperbacks mix with hardbacks, children's classics flank thrillers. It is a mish-mash of reading treasures.

This juxtapositioning of books reflects my husband's and my own eclectic tastes. We cannot live without books. They are journeys into the unknown, stolen moments of guilty pleasure, revisiting old friends.

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage of the man who can not read good books." Mark Twain

Twain had the right of it. He knew that reading is as necessary as breathing.

So for today, I am grateful for good books ... and for those who write them.