In 2010, I started a holiday called Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which grew with the help of book lovers, bloggers, and cross-country trips during which we visited almost five-hundred bookstores. My life is fuller every day thanks to the people I've met on lists and in forums and as part of threads. The world is much wider thanks to its online reach. It's amazing to know someone well--there are people whose pets I've mourned and whose children's triumphs I've celebrated--even though we've never said hello face-to-face.

But there's nothing like real-time, F2F interaction. In this virtual world that breeds as much disconnection as connection, sometimes it's just what we need.

One of the things I most look forward to is getting in the car again, returning to bookstores that have become favorites, and getting to meet in person people who have meant so much to me over the years. And new people, too, of course. For those reasons and more, we are hitting the road, and if our route looks like it takes us anywhere near you, please drop me a line. I'd love to find a good bookish location and come by.

Meanwhile, please check out the TYCBD web site to see what we're up to this year. And of course, take your child, or any child in your life, to a bookstore!