Like in this recent, popular, New York Times piece, there’s been some press lately about how important books are as a means of identifying people with similar interests and attitudes. With these new “bookshelf” applications in Facebook (as I mentioned a few weeks back), and other places, books are clearly—even in this digital age—remaining a social touchstone."

Some of it is of course just silly stuff—as I’ve discovered in my life as a writer of “popular” fiction, people can be snobs about books more than almost anything else in this world—but I think communicating to each other about books is a pretty positive thing.

After all, what’s more personally meaningful than the ideas and worlds we experience in books? (Hint from yours truly: very little.)

To that end, here’s a picture of one of our own bookshelves that Sue just took the other week for a website.

One or two of those books happen to be pretty good for young readers.

Please feel free to drop a comment below if you’re curious.

Also posted on James' Parenting Blog