Ann Patchett

Kuang to Ina Garten to Bono.

And whether it's presidential histories or mysteries, what we see is that books give people the means by which to connect.

The conversations may start with books, but they go everywhere.

Reading shines the light that disrupts the dark isolation so many people find themselves in.

Go to your local bookstore and see what I'm talking about.

Every time I change planes in O'Hare, I think about the Hare Krishna, a person I was afraid of, a person I had nothing in common with, a person whose only intention was to help me, both to find my gate and to find a force in the world greater than myself.

Through experience, we had both come to see that we were part of the larger human fabric.

He, through his faith, and me, through a different kind of faith.

Maybe this time we would sit at the gate a little bit longer, and I would ask him what he was reading.

I would tell him how much I admired the courage of his convictions.

I would thank him for helping me find my way.

Let's talk about reading first.

Let's just always talk about reading.

I was very slow to read.

I didn't read comfortably until I was in third grade.

So I was always longing to read.

And then I think once it finally clicked for me, there was no stopping me.

I was just reading all the time.

You know, I always knew that I wanted to be a writer.

And I always knew that reading and writing, I think of it as like walking on two legs.