Habitual Reader Profiles - Page 2

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	Name: H. K. Leberri
	City & State: Dallas, Texas
	Vocation / Avocation: Retired pilot

Why I'm a Habitual Reader:

In the early seventies, I found it necessary to leave the U.S. for a while. I started a new life in Mexico as a crop duster pilot. For five years I flew crop dusters and read novels. Since I didn't speak Spanish I had books flown to me from the US.

After my devotion to aviation comes my obsession with reading which began as a kid hanging out at a little airport near our house. I begged rides aboard tiny planes owned by pilots who loved anyone who'd hang around the hanger and listen to their stories. So between flights I read. Everything in sight. I don't fly professionally now, but I'm still as at home in the cockpit of a Beachcraft Bonanza as you are in your Taurus, but I read every spare moment I'm on the ground. I just can't help it.

My List of Ten: Books To Read While You're Hiding in Mexico

1. Catch-22
Author: Joseph Heller
The best collection of colorful characters in a single novel.

2. Cannery Row
Author: John Steinbeck
Every page of Steinbeck's story is poetry. It's set among the flophouses, and honky-tonks of 1930's Monterey.

3. Slaughterhouse Five
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
There are space aliens, time warps, beautiful women and an optometrist.

4. A Prayer For Owen Meany
Author: John Irving
Owen Meany is tiny but he speaks in caps. Irving's most creative book.

5. No Country For Old Men
Author: Cormac McCarthy
An old South Texas sheriff must deal with multiple murders and a super-assassin.

6. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Author: Ken Kesey
Kesey's absolute best. Every character is perfect. Every word is inspired.

7. Illusions
Author: Richard Bach
Read the first ten pages and you'll never be the same. I promise.

8. The Satanic Verses
Author: Salman Rushdie
After a plane explodes over the English Channel, the two main characters become symbols of good and evil. I never understood the stir it caused.

9. Scoop
Author: Evelyn Waugh
William Boot is a naive reporter who is sent by mistake to cover a war. Through sheer luck he becomes a newsman of Cronkite stature.

10. The Kid Who Ran For President
Author: Dan Gutman
Ten year old Judson Moon runs for president of the US and is elected through an almost supernatural process. It's pure satire about our electoral system and presidential election process.

Have you read any of these titles? Review one now.

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