I love to read. It wasn’t always that way. Some folks start early and some take a bit longer to get there. Once I arrived, there was no turning back.

I wasn’t a fan of reading in elementary school. I remember when the students in my class at St. Cecilia were able to color in segments of a bookworm picture – like something you’d find in a coloring book – for each book they read. Patty and Susan had a few pages of bookworms colored in and I had barely made progress on my single page. My mom, wise woman that she was, would read to me at night and I loved the words and stories, but not reading. Mom had a hunch and she was right. My left eye had a habit of crossing inward to the point that it affected reading, playing baseball and all sorts of other things that are important to growing up. She also made sure that she took my sister and me to the little library that served our area and provided me with materials that I would enjoy reading, like MAD Magazine and Sports Afield magazine, and sometimes Baseball Digest. I figure that she knew that if I had a menu of things that I found enjoyable to read that I would, well, read. She was right.

There was a Saturday when everything changed. I believe that I was in sixth grade. Among the books that I had from the library was one about the Korean War. Mom had a day full of errands to run, but I was sick and stayed home. By the time she got home, I was almost finished with the book, still laying on the sofa under a blanket. My life changed that day. New books became favorites, including biographies of the great baseball pitchers Dizzy Dean and Sandy Koufax. I consumed my mailed copy of Sports Afield magazine the moment I got home from school and fell in love with the writing style of Homer Circle. I was no bookworm, but I sure enjoyed a good read. It was in that time period that I fell in love with writing. I doubt that is a coincidence.

Between eighth grade and freshman year, the incoming class at Strake Jesuit had several books that we had to read. They remain among my favorites:  The Hobbit, The Catcher in the Rye, Travels with Charley, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Trout Fishing in America. I did not enjoy the Trout Fishing book because it wasn’t about fishing.

Starting in high school, I added photography magazines to my most-favored list. I was less interested in articles about techniques and more about the people in front of, or behind the camera. Within a few year, I began being published in two of the magazines that I read most often.

I rarely read fiction, but I usually have a couple of books that I’m reading at the same time. I read, pause and digest the words and what they are saying. Reading is like a four-course meal instead of fast food. My meals come on paper, not digitally. I like the look and feel of paper, the choice of fonts to match the book’s design and contents, and the opportunity to underline key phrases or make notes.

I love reading. The cold days we’ve had lately and those that are coming soon will surely provide me with more time to spend time between covers…of books, not the bed.

This blog section is titled Philo, which is Greek for loving, as in love of: for example, philanthropy: love of people/humanity; philosophy: love of knowledge or wisdom. My writings for Philo examine “love of” many things — both subtle and sublime — that comprise life and living.

Please enjoy my 2026 photography project, too. Year of 70: Decades of Joy and Thanks.