Meghan Daum

Anyone who dislikes these semi-clinical details can avoid them.

And then there are a couple of paragraphs that basically describe the state of his illness.

And then he talks about the prognosis, which is not very good, and through another few paragraphs, and then to this last paragraph.

Why don't you read that?

And so this to you feels very much like Hart, too, Moss Hart.

After spending her 20s in New York, Alexa Young moved to Los Angeles, as her grandfather did, to write screenplays for Hollywood.

She's written on shows like Friends, The West Wing, Big Love, Grace and Frankie, and lots more.

Act Two, The Family That Reads Together.

Sometimes a book can change your life, but just in a small, temporary way, and not for the better.

We have this cautionary tale of how a book infected an entire family from writer David Sedaris.

Quick warning to listeners before we begin, some of the content of this story might not be suitable for every listener, though there is no graphic language, no nasty words, no graphic scenes, nothing, in fact, we even had to bleep.

David Sedaris, this story appears in his book, Naked.

His latest book is called The Land and Its People.

Coming up, the frontier, then, and then, that's in a minute on Chicago Public Radio when our program continues.

It's His American Life, Amira Glass.

Each week on our program, of course, we choose a theme, bringing a variety of different kinds of stories on that theme.

Today's program is a rerun, The Book That Changed My Life.

We've arrived at Act 3 of our show.

Act 3, Roger and Me, Lewis and Clark.

There's book as literature, there's book as filth, and then there's book as pure physical object.