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Here’s to the Love of Reading

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Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. — Harper Lee

By Jerod Santek, Founding & Artistic Director, Write On, Door County

For most of my life, I remember my mother reading. Mysteries mostly, especially Agatha Christie. During the last decade of her life, her eyesight became so bad that she could no longer read, not even large print books. It was the activity she missed the most, even more so than tending her flower gardens. After all, as she said, you can only garden for a few months; you can read all year-long. My mother passed away at the end of December. Wherever she is now, I hope there is a big stack of books beside her. 

Find a New Book to Love
We are excited to hold Write On’s first book exchange, Super Book Sunday, this Sunday, February 9, starting at 1 pm. Bring a book you have enjoyed but are ready to part with and find a new title another book lover admired. Come prepared to say a few words about the book you brought and discover what other people have enjoyed, whether or not you end up taking that book home. At today’s Door County Reads book discussion here at the center, people were frantically scribbling down the titles of books other people mentioned and adding it to their “To Read” list. May you find that your “To Read” list is always longer than is humanly possible to get through!

Love of Books and Love of Nature
Watch our website next weekend for exciting information on our 2025 Writing On The Door Conference: Writing the World. This two day conference will focus on writing about nature and the environment. We have a stellar line-up of presenters, including keynote events with Dan Egan, author of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes and The Devil’s Element, and Daniel Slager, publisher and CEO of Milkweed Editions, one of the nation’s leading nonprofit literary presses that is dedicated to publishing books concerned with nature. Other presenters include former Wisconsin Poets Laureate Kimberly Blaeser and Nicholas Gulig; Alison Townsend, Michael Walsh, Anna Farro Henderson, and many more. There will be a panel discussion on writing the nature of Door County as well as nature hike-and-writes, bird-watching sessions, and more. I hope you can join us at the Landmark Resort in Egg Harbor (as well as select other locations) Friday and Saturday, May 9 and 10. Most sessions will be held 9 am – 4 pm but there will be add-on activities before and/or after these hours.

As Cicero is reported to have written, “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” This Mother’s Day weekend, help us celebrate Mother Earth.

New Programs for Readers and Writers

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