Check into the Inn at Last Chance

I have three brothers. They taught me much as I grew up. How to kick a soccer ball. How to climb a tree. How to bait a hook. How to score a baseball game.

They also handed down their books to me. Books like: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein, and I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. I never read a Nancy Drew story in my life but I did jump feet first into all twenty-three volumes of the Tarzan series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

When I was eleven or twelve I would take one or two of these hand-...