Essays which first appeared in the Raleigh News & observer.

Introduction : adventures in reading / by J. Peder Zane -- The most memorable book I read / Bebe Moore Campbell -- The loneliest book I read / Jonathan Lethem -- The most enchanting book I read / Betty Adock -- The most important book I read / Denise Gess -- The most daunting book I read / Lee K. Abbott -- The most resonant book I read / Scott Weidensaul -- The most dangerous book I read / Frederick Busch -- The wisest book I read / Robert Morgan -- The classiest book I read / Eric Wright -- The most eloquent book I read / Anthony Walton -- The maddest book I read / Joan Barfoot -- The most double-d-daring book I read / Marianne Gingher -- The most hippest book I read / J. Peder Zane -- The most familiar book I read / Haven Kimmel -- The most incomprehensible book I read / H.W. Brands -- The most devastating book I read / Ben Marcus -- The most apocalyptic book I read / Lydia Millet -- The saddest book I read / Nasdijj -- The most fragile book I read / Bret Lott -- The most beautiful book I read / Jill McCorkle -- The most tempting book I read / Charles Frazier -- The most fearless book I read / Elizabeth Hay -- The most intuitive book I read / Aimee Bender -- The most Scottish book I read / Margot Livesey -- The most technically elegant book I read / Clyde Edgerton -- The queerest book I read / Peter Cameron -- The most exotic book I read / Fred Chappell -- The most smokin' book I read / Sven Birkerts -- The most seductive books I read / Peggy Payne -- The most elegant book I read / Howard Bahr -- The most surprising book I read / Peter Gay -- The most disappointing book I read / Marvin Hunt -- The most unpleasant book I read / Doris Betts -- The most luminous book I read / Lee Smith.