A true believer for books

Italo Calvino dives into a good book.

      Call me old-fashioned or just plain stubborn. 
      I’ve made my living as a journalist for the past thirty years in an industry everybody keeps insisting is in its death throes. And just for fun and my own sanity, I spend my other waking hours, working words into novels, that other mode that people keep saying is dead in our Internet Age. 
      I still believe in books as in physical folios of pages between covers, hard or soft, and not just pixels of an e-book on your new gadget from Amazon or Apple. I still believe in bookstores, independently owned, with their walls and shelves full of brand new books just beckoning to be opened and read. 
       It’s a great joy to have a new book to add to that stock of imagination that independent bookstores traffic in, and to go and meet like-minded people who love to read. 
      I’m excited that the book tour for “Half-Life of Home” is taking shape, thanks to my hard-working publicist Bridgette Lacy. We’ve lined up readings at a few independent bookstores across the state, and more are on the way. So mark these on your calendar and plan to come on out if you have a chance:

    Malaprop's, Asheville,  7 pm April 13
    City Lights, Sylva, 6:30 pm, April 19
    Accent on Books, 3 pm, April 27
    McIntyres, Pittsboro, 11 am May 4
   Blue Ridge Bookfest, Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, May 18
    

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