Last week, I was in Jefferson, Texas at Kathy Murphy’s Pulpwood Queens Girlfriend Weekend, an annual event that promotes literacy. I’ve attended it as often as I could slince the event. As usual, Kathy, a champion of literacy, organized the event well: the speakers were fantastic and motivatilng, the writers and readers who attended were sharp and excited, and the funds raised were designated to help the Pat Controy LIterary Center, which brings me to the purpose of this blog post. I was musical entertainment for the authors on Thursday night, was on one author panel, and signed my books the rest of the weekend. (Under the Witch’s Mark and others. You can see my books HERE: )

I was fortunate enough to purchase a book signed by Pat Conroy, My Reading Life. I was so happy to obtain this treasure that I did not make write or underliome in it as I usually do when I read a book I really like. From my reading of this book this week, I learned so much about Pat Conroy, his travels, his literary and reading life, the people and authors and books that influenced him, about the act and art of reading, about how reading relates to one’s writing, and about myself. I had a true and womderful literary experlience in that reading.

Here’s just a few of my favorite quotations:

“Good writing is the hardest form of thinking” (304).

“All writers are hostages of their own divine, unchangeable rituals” (206).

“The most powerful words in English are, “Tell me a story . . . (303).

“I learned how to be a man through the reading of great books” (321).

There are so many others, but I hope these will get you thinking. If you’ve been a reader of Pat Conroy’s novels, you will enjoy this book,

Rickey Pittman