A reader named Patrick noticed my column about blogging in today's Ideas section and sent a poem for Read Street. I probably would published it simply because it was from a book lover, but he also invoked the Boston Celtics, whose championship I am still savoring, and I was hooked. We all know the feelings that he writes about -- reading for duty vs. reading for joy.

Here's Patrick's intro: At a bookstore, a friend had stumbled onto a book about the Boston Celtics. Knowing I loved the team, he told me, "You should buy this." I heard myself respond, "Ah, I'd just read it." I was going through a lengthy period of buying books that were chores to finish. They were books I wanted to have read. Realizing how stupid I was not to buy a book that I would immediately sit down and read front to back, I wrote this poem.

BOOKSTORE EYES

My bookstore eyes are bigger than my brain.

They gravitate to gray tomes that explain,

with gnarled abstractions and legerdemain,

all that is known of the human terrain,

or would if my mind could make the words plain.