One book enters, another must leave.

Right, so here’s a little confession: I’ve been having a really difficult time reading. It wasn’t something I was entirely conscious of — deep down, it wasn’t even anything I wanted to think about, though I’d sometimes glance at the growing stack of books on the coffee table and think, “Wow, why haven’t I started in on these treasures?”

For me, that’s crazy: my life has always been 70% books, 10% breathing, and 20% some-other-necessary-to-life act — like eating. But in the last year, I just h...