In personal essays that read like short stories, writers describe their life-altering encounters with books.Can books be dangerous, elegant, or sad? Can books be tempting, or smokin', or double-d-daring? Can they compel you to hitchhike to the middle of Mexico, fall in love with snakes, or question your sanity? Of course they can. Writers including Jonathan Lethem, Haven Kimmel, Charles Frazier, and Bebe Moore Campbell tell us why in this eye-opening anthology. Tapping classic works such as The Catcher in the Rye and The Cat in the Hat as well as obscure novels such as Karel Capek's The War of the Newts, they reveal how literature tempts, enchants, and changes us. Each of these essays, which first appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer, reminds us that reading is not a passive pastime but an action sport that seizes and shapes, renews and remakes us. Insightful and heartfelt, humorous and accessible, Remarkable Reads will delight anyone who has ever loved a book.