With the holidays quickly approaching, we're all gathering scraps of paper with gift ideas and shopping lists. So, what to get your favorite reader -- a novel, travel memoir, cookbook, classic, beach read, the latest bestseller? How about...a book about books?

Author Pat Conroy has long been a favorite with Darien Library readers, and My Reading Life is a memoir about the books that have shaped his life as a man and a writer. He recalls childhood trips to the library, where he stood in awe of towering stacks of books about Africa, a distant land of crocodiles and zebras, how Gone With the Wind influenced his identity as a southerner, the way he brought Charles Dickens to a rural schoolroom in isolated South Carolina, his own emergence as an author, and why War and Peace just might be the most satisfying experience he's ever had as a reader.

My Reading Life reminds us, in a culture of sound bites and viral video, that the printed word still has deep power to move and shape us. Pat Conroy's gift for choosing words that evoke and inspire make this an instant classic, and the perfect choice for any reader on your gift list (even yourself)!