On The Screen and Beside My Bed

What I've been reading and can recommend highly

I’ve always consumed media in bulk. When I was quite young most of that consumption revolved around Saturday morning cartoons and Gilligan’s island after school. But I was also fascinated by the idea of the Encyclopedia. Like so many other families in the 60s and 70s, our home had the full Encyclopedia Brittanica sitting accessible on our shelves in the Family Room. It seemed to me that everything I would ever need to know was contained in those 20 or so volumes. I skimmed and read them regularly from the time I was ten until I left for college.

Today, most of my media consumption revolves around wine and the wine business. But I often return to literature, social science and history, and books that strike my fancy in one way or another. Recently I’ve returned to frequenting the city library. Here in Salem, Oregon we have a newly renovated library that is nothing less than fabulous. I’m there weekly with my son, Henry. We browse the stacks pulling 5-10 books at a time.