I am an old-fashioned print journalist, presently practicing my craft as a magazine editor in Hickory, N.C.

I have been a bibliophile since I was a child. One of my favorite memories is my maternal grandmother taking me to the old Lumberton library on the second floor of the (now-demolished) City Hall. I can't remember much of it (I was, after all, only a 4-year-old), but I do recall the wooden bookshelves that seemed so tall to me and the light streaming in the tall windows along one wall. That experience and an excellent first-grade teacher started my lifelong love of the printed word.

My reading leans toward history, politics, biography/autobiography and some fiction. In the past, I have put my interest in books to work as an occasional reviewer for newspapers. Cox News Service (the chain that formerly owned two of the newspapers I worked for) has used some of my reviews on its weekly books page as well.

One extension of my hobby is a love affair with bookstores. When I lived in Wilmington, N.C., a former girlfriend and I would think absolutely nothing about driving three or four hours just to reach the bookstores we loved so much in Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill. Even now, it is a highlight of any trip back to my beloved University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to stop at the Bull's Head in the student store. Also, while my preference will always be for small, independent booksellers, I do not begrudge the rise of Barnes and Noble.

Please pardon me for being so long-winded. I couldn't help it once I started on a subject I love so much - BOOKS!!!