Welcome, Michael. I am really happy to have you on the show. I know you've had a very long relationship with selected shorts.

How big of a reader were you when you were growing up?

Oh, a very big reader. I read all the time.

What did you love?

Gosh, I read the collected works of Beverly Cleary. I feel like I read the collected Narnia books, which is like 15 books.

I read all of Judy Bloom. I read all of Encyclopedia Brown.

And my favorite were the Great Brain books by John DeFitt's Gerald, which I loved.

I love everything you just mentioned. These are classics.

The Great Brain, I think. I wonder if kids still read them. You have kids around that age or?

I did. My children are now senior-aged children in the sense that they are adults. They are adult children now.

Oh, so you can't force them to read the Great Brain anymore?

No, I can't force them to read anything. And for many years, neither of my children read very much.

But now, my daughter has suddenly taken a great interest in reading, which is terrific.

And so if I could just get my son to do the same, I feel like I will have accomplished my job as a parent.

And then I can just fade into ash.

I read something long ago that a way that you can get your kids to read.

And this doesn't apply to senior children, but is to sort of basically make the book into what I call a hot object.

Like when they're getting to bed, if they're reading, say, put that book away.

Because then it becomes this thing that is alluring.

So maybe you can go to your son and just sort of stop him from reading.

You know what he reads? Actually, he reads manga comic books. He's 21 years old.

You'd think his tastes would have evolved. They have not.

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