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For some 25 years, I worked as a librarian, first at the New York Public Library, then at Trenton State College in New Jersey. My life has always been with, around, and for books.

Librarians in America do something like a couple of billion dollars worth of book business every year.

I now teach at American University and the University of Virginia.

I buy thousands of books a year.

I worked for a publishing company in Hollywood.

Believe it or not, I worked four summers in college as a sports writer covering baseball for a parks and rec department in Bayonne, N.J.

I spent thirty-two years in a paper mill in southern Ohio, and before that, I worked in a meatpacking plant and a shoe factory.

After seven years of writing - and working many jobs to support my family - I finally got published.

I graduated with an English degree and worked for awhile in academic publishing.