For many of us worlds unfold through the pages of books as we visit places that were once too far away; we meet new people who were once strangers and we learn how to understand who we are and how we should behave. In Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird”, we learn that books show us ” what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”

In life we tend to be so wrapped up in our own lives and in the difficulties we face that we overlook the details that comprise each day of our lives: the sky that looks so vivid and flawless in the morning, the overgrown grass at the sides of the road that sways in the breeze, the warmth of the sun on our arms. Through the magic of books we are forced to pay attention, to stop and take notice. The writer distracts us from our daily challenges and takes us on journeys away from our lives -allowing us to look around at the sights we pass along the way. Through the writer’s story we find magic and hope and we come alive.

Anne Lamott tells us it is a miracle that these “small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort, and quiet or excite you.” She tells us that books are “full of all the things that you don’t get in real life- wonderful, lyrical language right off the bat!” she tells us that her gratitude for good writing is unbounded.

I feel the same way; grateful for good writing and for the unbounded magic of books and of the talented writers who continuously find new stories to pull out of their hats, er , I mean “heads”!