I just returned from a beach vacation. I read some Gabriel Garcia Marquez, some Janet Evanovich, some Vogue, some Elle, some Marie Claire. How’s that for hitting the whole spectrum?

I have a friend who marveled that a woman with Octavio Paz on her bookshelf could read Janet Evanovich. His reaction made me laugh out loud. “I’m well-rounded,” I said. The truth is, Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum character is so Jersey, so in the thick of Trenton’s Chambersburg, so sassy, so irreverent, that I can’t resist her. Nor can I resist the plotline of the two men she lusts after.

I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else’s story, the delicious ache of a last page.
— Naomi Shihab Nye, from the September issue of O magazine

And I love that such a wide range of authors make me feel that way.