Self-parody Is The First Portent Of Age.

... People Are Always Turning Out To Be Tougher Than I Think They Are.

Most Young Dealers Of The Silicon Chip Era Regard A Reference Library As Merely A Waste Of Space. Old Timers On The West Coast Seem To Retain A Fondness For Reference Books That Goes Beyond The Practical. Everything There Is To Know About A Given Volume May Be Only A Click Away, But There Are Still A Few Of Us Who'd Rather Have The Book Than The Click. A Bookman's Love Of Books Is A Love Of Books, Not Merely Of The Information In Them.

The Tradition I Was Born Into Was Essentially Nomadic, A Herdsmen Tradition, Following Animals Across The Earth. The Bookshops Are A Form Of Ranching; Instead Of Herding Cattle, I Herd Books. Writing Is A Form Of Herding, Too; I Herd Words Into Little Paragraph-like Clusters.

Working- And Middle-class Families Sat Down At The Dinner Table Every Night - The Shared Meal Was The Touchstone Of Good Manners. Indeed, That Dinner Table Was The One Time When We Were All Together, Every Day: Parents, Grandparents, Children, Siblings. Rudeness Between Siblings, Or A Failure To Observe The Etiquette Of Passing Dishes To One Another, Accompanied By "please" And "thank You," Was The Training Ground Of Behavior, The Place Where Manners Began.

Listening To Women Ain't The Fashion In This Part Of The Country.