When I was in high school, my relatives bought a new house not far from ours. As they were moving in, my uncle commented on the house's previous owners. "They didn't have books. There wasn't a book in the house," he said to me. "Can you imagine a house without books?" He was aghast. He was a professor at a top university and he had written quite a few books himself.

But I was taken aback. "Maybe they used the library," I said in defense of the unknown previous owners. "We don't have any books in our house," I pointed out. My parents were not readers. At our house, we got the daily newspaper and the Reader's Digest. That was it. But my mother had diligently taken me to the library from the moment I could read. For me, a trip to the library was as wonderful as a trip to the toy store. More so, really. At the toy store, I would gaze longingly at the glittering displays but usually leave with only one small token. At the library, I knew I would go home with my arms full of treasure.

My uncle mumbled something like, "Oh, well, yes, the library..."

I was confused. I had never thought of books as being things to own. Why would you want to buy books when you could read them for free from the library? I figured my uncle was being a snob. After all, he was wealthier than my parents were. My dad was a cop. He didn't read books, but he always said he was going to write one about all the nutty people he'd encountered during his career. (He never did write that book, and he's gone now. But that's another story. I'll tell it another time.)

Over the years, I began visiting bookstores and buying books when I could afford to. I began to understand the concept of books as beloved objects. I loved the heft of them in my hands, the covers, the bindings, the stories. Today, I own shelves and piles of books. In the attic of our house, I have boxes of them, including boxes of my children's books from when they were little. Some books, I pick up time and again. Others just sit there gathering dust. Honestly, I don't need all these books. And yes, I do still love the library.

But I can't imagine a house without books. To me, they make a house a home as much as pots and pans, family photos, pillows, and teapots do. Well, I must be off. I'm going to the bookstore. I need another book.