A Common Reader:  I presume that you do not have enough books around the house. It is to laugh. My house is loaded with books, more than I can ever read before I die. I am trying to work on ‘attachment,’ the Buddhist principle of owning and wanting more. Or not owning and not wanting more, as the case may be. The Common Reader is not helping. What is the Common Reader, you ask? It’s a book catalog, but unlike any ordinary book catalog you’ve ever received in the mail. It’s generally about 136 pages long and filled with all sorts of books, from the classics, to travelogues, to works of philosophies, novels, mysteries and many other categories. What is so enticing about this catalog is the descriptions of the books listed. Often I sit down in my easy chair and spend most of an evening reading about every book. It's like having an intelligent conversation with the owner or whoever puts the list together. The list on the notepad at my side grows longer and longer. I know I can neither afford all of those books nor if I acquired them could I read all of them. Aha, I say. We have a very good library system in the county where I reside. Their catalog is available on-line. I go there and check my Common Reader list against their holdings. The hits are always well over 90%. This is eminently unfair to the Common Reader company, I know. I try to order something from the catalog a couple of times a year so salve my conscience and to keep the catalog coming. So far it’s worked. Through this catalog I’ve discovered some very interesting books which I might never have read. And the list grows longer. The last time I added to it the number of books hovered around 150. The last book I read from the list was Kelly James’ Dancing with the Witchdoctor. But I’ll leave that for another blog. If you’re interested the address is The Common Reader, 141 Tompkins Avenue, Pleasantville, NY 10570-3154. Good reading, or should I say, good browsing.