my take: I love REAL books: flipping pages; bending pages; underlining; dropping in the sand. I love reading until the wee hours. I love the smell of books. I love book cover art. I love independent book stores and booksellers who give recommendations.

my sources: After The Little House on the Prairie phase, my real love of reading developed in high school under my English teacher, Dave Schelhaas, and at Calvin College with beloved Professor Stan Wiersma. My mother (a retired English teacher) and my father (a retired copy editor) have fostered my adult reading tastes and passion. Credit also to my husband for hundreds of good reads culled from hours of standing in book stores reading the back cover of books (then purchasing) … and to my English major daughter, Anne, who culls library book shelves.

I’d get only a fraction of books read if it weren’t for the book chicks, my book club of 20 years. Included in the chicks are BFF, Susan, a school librarian, and my two sisters, Jennifer and Carey, elementary school teachers and fellow book lovers.

I feel fortunate to know such a wealth of avid and passionate readers. Parents, sisters, daughters, friends, cousins, aunts, great aunts … I’m surrounded by readers with book suggestions and lively discussions on the cottage porch and in beach chairs along Lake Michigan.

The book chick lives in Holland, Michigan with her husband and naughty beagle, Lulu. She’s mothered four children and is happy to be the GiGi (grandmother) to the world’s best Hendrik. In addition to reading, she enjoys walking, photography, tennis, travel and teaches Pilates.