I came to work at The Pilot on June 22, 1992 and wrote my first book review in August of that year. I have been writing a weekly column ever since.

The stacks of books that surround my desk generally provoke a series of questions from visitors to the newsroom. I’ve answered these questions so often that my co-worker, Special Projects Editor Melissa Breedlove, suggested I write a column.

First, I have not read and am not reading all of the books on my desk. The publishing companies send us books, some that we’ve requested from their catalog and several that we have not, in hopes that we will deem them worthy of review.

As the envelopes are opened, I can usually tell immediately if it’s a book I’m interested in reading or if someone else on the news staff might like it. (Luckily for me, senior writers Clark Cox and Florence Gilkeson as well as staff writer Sara Lindau are all prolific readers.)

If I’m taking a book, I generally move it to the right side of my desk or put it in my bag. Books I think Clark, Florence or Sara would like go directly to them. In some instances, I might know a non-staff person who’d like a particular book and I’ll contact him. Books that don’t strike anyone’s fancy are placed on the left side of my desk for perusal by other newsroom personnel; most of these end up in a file cabinet across the room.

Yes, I do read the books I write about in my column. I read rapidly, at least when it comes to romance or mystery novels. I do slow down a bit when reading biography or nonfiction volumes. The only exception to this is cookbooks. You don’t have to read every word in a cookbook to tell you if it’s a good one, although my husband would tell you there’s no reason in the world for me to read one anyway.

And let me dispel any notion that you might have that I get paid to read these books — I don’t. I do the reading on my own time, usually at night at home but often while I’m waiting at an appointment. (I read a 217 page mystery last week while waiting for my daughter to get her eyes examined.) If I’m eating lunch alone, I generally have a book in hand. In fact, folks will often ask me what I’m reading and when I plan to write about it.

In spite of what my family might say, we don’t live in a house filled with rooms of books. I do keep books that are inscribed to me as well as books relating to North Carolina. The others are either donated to schools or I sell them to a used book store.