The mail on Christmas Eve included a hard copy of the Spring/Summer 2010 catalog from Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers, featuring — to my immense delight — a couple of good friends of mine on both the front and back covers.

That alone would have made for a happy holiday. But better still was the book that my beloved gave me the next day: Daniel Pennac’s delicious The Rights of the Reader. I could quote from it all day long, but will stick to just this one:

Time to read is always time stolen. (Like time to write, for that matter, or time to love.)

Thanks for stealing a little time to read what I’ve had to say this year. And here’s to more stolen time for all of us in 2010, for each of those purposes above.