To my new subscribers:

Welcome aboard!

You have my word that behind every post is my desire to not waste your time. I hope in the coming weeks/months that we have a good conversation.

I'll put up Reading Project/Challenge/Ball Tossed in Air [1] this week, and will offer new ones every few weeks. In the meantime, here are two ongoing projects:  

a) Shelter from the Storm:

The concept: Each of us has a small cache of books we know and esteem that even other readers like us likely don't know—our discoveries, books we feel a special need to keep out of the clutches of oblivion. I invite you to recommend one.

The details:

• One per subscriber [for now].

• Tell us why, in one sentence.

• When there's enough for a list, I'll post.

• You can have your name attached, or not—up to you.

b) Birth Year Project: A standing invitation

You supply your birth year [in a comment]; I'll respond with a short list of books published that year—the popular/well-known titles first, then some books I'd recommend. If your year's already been used, fret not; I'll do a fresh one.

Extra credit: You read one of the books (ideally one you're unfamiliar with), then tell me what you thought. If we get enough of these, I'll aggregate and post. 

*New: From now on, once published, birth year posts will move to a separate shelf [access it using a button atop home page].