The Official
Elmore Leonard Website

For “Books Go Everywhere”
The Library Network.

Thanks to my sister, who used to read to me when I was little. I’ve always loved books.  Growing up I must have read everything from “Cinderella” and Little Goody Two Shoes” to “Treasure Island and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”  Next came Raphael Sabatini’s The Sea Hawk,” “Scaramouche and the Don Sturdy series of adventures.  Pretty soon I was reading Book-of-the-Month Club selections, novels written by contemporary authors.  I discovered Ernest Hemingway and decide that, more than anything else, I wanted to be a writer someday.  This meant reading not simply for enjoyment but with a special purpose, to learn how to tell stories.

I’m always amazed when I’m in someone’s home and see no evidence of books.  Or when someone tells me he never reads novels, doesn’t have time for that.  Really?  You don’t need a special time or place to read.  You can take a book with you wherever you go and find moments to entertain yourself, or to learn about something you’d like to know.

I can’t imagine not having a good book close by, one that I can’t wait to begin.