I think it's safe to say that if you find yourself reading this blog, you have an affinity for books. Maybe you even have an affinity for journalists.

Well, lately I've discovered that my love of books and journalism often intersect. A few fantastic reads I've enjoyed recently include Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates, Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, Mary Roach's Stiff and Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle.

Books about the Puritans, the Western diet, cadavers and a dysfunctional family. What do they have in common? All written by journalists.

Baltimore itself can claim many of this breed of writer: H.L. Mencken, Stephen Hunter, Laura Lippman, Leon Uris, David Simon; and I'm sure I'm forgetting many that you'll remind me of soon enough.

Of course, they don't all change the world with their writings, like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein over here. But whether they're fleshing out their beat outside the constraints of a daily deadline, or simply letting their imaginations run wild in a work of fiction, it's entertaining and often enlightening.

(UPI photo)