There's something called the Fog Index. It's a simple calculation, applied to text, that tells you how complicated your writing is. In brief, when a sentence runs longer than 20 words, you start to lose people.

Back in October, the library's Board of Trustees held a long range planning retreat. One of their outcomes was a new library mission statement.

I have long been an admirer of Joyce Meskis, owner of the Tattered Cover bookstore. I've even had the pleasure of working with her on several efforts to resist censorship.

Thanksgiving continues to be my favorite holiday. First, it requires only that you get together with friends and family, and eat as much good food as humanly possible.

Second, I like the idea on which it is based: we have much to be thankful for.

My life these days is very rich. I am blessed with a family I adore, and work that matters to me. I have my health. While my finances are modest, so are my needs. I have a slowly widening circle of friends and colleagues.

And I have books.

When I was in high school, I got deep into the works of Ayn Rand. Then I took a class from a guy who infuriated me. His subject was sociology. When he asked the question, "Who came first: the individual or society?" I knew the answer. The individual. Of course.

But the teacher said I was wrong. The right answer, he said, was "society." Without society, he said, you would have no self, would not have opinions about culture because there would be no culture. You would be an animal.