Publisher, Random House Audiobooks (November 2010)

Listen to a FREE audio clip.

"Pat Conroy doesn't just love books, he devours them. He doesn't just visit libraries and bookstores, he inhabits them. He doesn't enjoy language, he revels in it. . . . [My Reading Life] is a rich, unabashedly self-critical and moving tribute to a writer's passion. . . . Like Stephen King did in his remarkable On Writing, Conroy reminds us of his considerable talents for telling a story and arranging words." —Associated Press

"[Conroy's] fans will savor these 15 essays on the books and people that helped shape his long writing career. . . . They lend themselves to being taken up separately, at leisure, and savored like a rich dessert." —The Charlotte Observer

"My Reading Life extols the glories of books [and] offers heartfelt thanks to those who encouraged a passion that led [Conroy] to writing." —The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)

"Conroy's legion of fans will doubtlessly bond with the author as he earnestly explores the role of books in providing him with inspiration and solace." —Publishers Weekly

"What a delightful little book . . . with a punch far sturdier than its compact size might suggest. . . . Try to resist rereading it!" —Booklist

"Pat Conroy's writing contains a virtue now rare in most contemporary fiction: passion." —Denver Post

"Reading Pat Conroy is like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel." —Houston Chronicle

Bestselling author Pat Conroy acknowledges the books that have shaped him and celebrates the profound effect reading has had on his life.

Pat Conroy, the beloved American storyteller, is also a vora­cious reader. He has for years kept a notebook in which he notes words or phrases, just from a love of language. But read­ing for him is not simply a pleasure to be enjoyed in off-hours or a source of inspiration for his own writing. It would hardly be an exaggeration to claim that reading has saved his life, and if not his life then surely his sanity.

In My Reading Life, Conroy revisits a life of passionate reading. He includes wonderful anecdotes from his school days, mov­ing accounts of how reading pulled him through dark times, and even lists of books that particularly influenced him at vari­ous stages of his life, including grammar school, high school, and college. Readers will be enchanted with his ruminations on reading and books, and want to own and share this perfect gift book for the holidays. And, come graduation time, My Reading Life will establish itself as a perennial favorite, as did Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

About the Author: Pat Conroy is the bestselling author of The Water is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, The Pat Conroy Cookbook, My Losing Season, and South of Broad. He lives in Fripp Island, South Carolina.