I first became enamored with Egypt as a young child. A photogravure of Karnak in ancient Thebes captivated my imagination. Still does. Mummies were cool and still are, but the architecture and necropoli are unmatched. Pyramids are wonderful, everywhere they’re found and let’s face it there are a lot of them scattered around the world.

And there are camels. I like camels. Yes, they spit, bite, stink and kick…but c’mon they’re snorty cute beasts with humps!

My parents took me (and the sibling, lest he complain about being abandoned at home to fend for himself) to see the King Tut exhibit when it visited San Francisco back in the 70s. In addition to the traveling exhibit we attended the gallery exhibition at the museum (can’t recall which one) where there were a large number of Tang Chinese ceramic horses on display.

Wow, those were some sexy muscular animals.

My adolescent senses were overwhelmed by the suggestion of strength and power, the grandeur contained by the artist, and I never forgot those impressions. That’s what I look for when I pick up a good read. There must be more than good craft and well-developed structure. I want to be captivated and my breath to catch.

Of course I can’t read an entire book of that…but a word that evokes a sensation, a phrase that draws out a tenous connection to a personal memory, a plot turn that elegantly exposes a line of reasoning that blows my mind….that’s all I want in a good read. And I find them in every genre and style that exists.

The next one might be yours and imagine just how cool that would be for us both.

What’s your bestest read ever? Which stories, like old friends, do you revisit year after year? Have you ever read a book so good you finished the last page and immediately started all over again?