September 24, 1997

Contact:
Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189

---

New Book Describes the Pleasures of Reading as Seen by Contemporary Writers

In association with the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, Milkweed Editions of Minneapolis, MI has just published The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading.

Edited by writer Michael Dorris (1945-1997) who wrote the introduction, and writer and publisher Emilie Buchwald, this collection of short essays from 57 of today's best writers is an eloquent testament to the importance of books. The contributors, although they came to reading in many different ways, remember how books allowed them to escape to other places and times, and helped them feel less alone. They include Nicholson Baker, Charles Baxter, Alan Cheuse, National Public Radio's Bob Edwards, Gretel Ehrlich, Doris Grumbach, Thom Gunn, poets J.D. McClatchy and Naomi Shihab Nye, Katherine Paterson, and Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky.

In his afterword, Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole describes the center's activities and "Building a Nation of Readers," its national reading promotion theme for the years 1997-2000.

A 297-page book, The Most Wonderful Books sells for $14.95. It is available in bookstores around the nation and in the Library of Congress Sales Shop.

For information about the Center for the Book and its publications, visit the center's site on the World Wide Web at http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/.

# # #

PR 97-159
9/24/97
ISSN 0731-3527