For my birthday today, I received an honest-to-goodness hardcover book. I can’t remember the last time I read a hardcover book. I hardly know how to behave around it.

First, I think I’ll admire it for a while. I might carry it from room to room until I find a place to put it where I won’t forget to pick it up and read it. Perhaps I’ll write my name inside the cover.

My brand new book, with its crisp dust jacket, is Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. When I first discovered this talented author, I read Pigs in Heaven. Then I went to a used book store and bought every novel that I could find by Ms. Kingsolver, in paperback. I read them all. The last one I finished was The Poisonwood Bible. That took me awhile.

Then I flitted among several other authors. But now I am back. I’m ready for a new adventure.