It seems like we have been using up an awful lot of ink lately to publish stories about books. Dan Hennessy’s last three “Timely Matters” columns have been about books and reading; Michael Fitzgerald’s “Write On” Friday was about bringing books back into focus. And that’s to say nothing of Joel Freedman’s terrific book reviews, which run fairly regularly on our pages.

And the subject of our most recent “Friday Conversation,” Tom Ninestine, touched a nerve when he mentioned that one of the books he currently is reading is mine: “George Washing Machine, Portables & Submarine Races.” (Which, by the way, I am delighted to announce has skyrocketed into 130,948th place in the Memoirs category on Amazon.com! Seriously, you can look it up!)

All of that makes my heart happy.

During Women’s History Month and in honor of International Women’s Day that we observed recently, all this talk about books reminds me of the most important woman in my life, my mom, who was the most ravenous reader I’ve ever known. She easily could read four or five books a day — and I’m not talking about Dr. Seuss books, more like Dr. Spock.

When she died 16 years ago — and WOW, where did those 16 years go? — she owned more books than........

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