This past month I have been immersed in a wonderful visit with two of my favorite all time authors: Vasily Grossman and Pat Conroy. First Pat: My Reading Life allow the reader to crawl behind the veil and learn what makes Conroy, Conroy. I was blow away by the violence in his family. His dad smacks not only the kids but the mom too. Pat grew up hating his dad a Marine Corp fighter pilot. His mom's formal education stopped at HS, but her reading would surpass all but .1% of college graduates. She consumed good literature and passed on the love of reading to Pat and his sister Carol (7 kids in family). What begins to form in the readers mind is Pat's pure and simple love of words and sentence construction. His interest is furthered by one of his HS teachers Gene Norris who wrapped himself around young Pat both in and out of class. He was, according to Pat, the most influential person in Pat's life along with his mom. He talked with Gene everyday of his adult life and was with him until his death. Pat also took a couple of classes from James Dickey who again had a major impact on Pat. My favorite chapter deals with War and Peace which Pat explains with enthusiasm why it is the greatest novel ever written. He read it as a student, again in his 30s, and most recently at age 61. All in all, for me, it was a great book to learn in general the rigors of writing and in particular Pat as a writer. He leaves the reader with the thought that who we are. what we are, are so clearly developed when we are so young. I think this is one of those books which both entertains and teaches--a great combo in my mind. Cheers--PJA