I'm a fiction writer and poet who lives in the Bronx. I also have my own editing business, so you can imagine that I'm inundated in books. I give a lot of them away to friends, to charities like HousingWorks and to local libraries, but there are always more creeping into my house. I accumulate a lot of nonfiction when I'm working on a novel (as I am now) and then lose interest in it once it's served its purpose. I also tend to keep nonfiction more than fiction, just for reference purposes. The only fiction I keep is my absolute favorites, the kind that I read over and over again, which is a mixture of literary writers, science fiction, and magical realisim. So a lot of fiction gets read and given away.

Long before this program started, I found a copy of How the Irish Saved Civilization on the street. It was a little rain-damaged, but certainly readable, and I picked it up and brought it home, much the way other people rescue animals. Letting books go "into the wild," like catch and release fishing, is a great way to spread literacy, and there can never be too much of that in the world. Bravo for starting this program. I'm delighted to participate.