I went to see Stone Reader with very few preconceptions. I knew that Ebert loved it, and that it was about the search for a book/author, and that I sort of remembered hearing about it on NPR sometime.

It was long...a little over two hours, but I rather enjoyed every minute of it. As someone who has been a vocarious reader ever since I learned how to read, it was great to see so many dedicated readers up on screen. Filmmaker Mark Moskowitz's bookshelves reminded me quite a bit of my dad's book shelves, and when Mark and his friend were exploring the shelves of the library going "remember when you read this?"--well, that was me.

After the film, Mark Moskowitz was on hand to take questions, and he admitted that his search for Dow Mossman, author of the out-of-print and forgotten The Stones of Summer was not in the least bit efficient, but he asked the audience, "Do you really think the movie was really about finding Dow?" Truthfully, no. It was about the relationships between readers and books, authors and books, and authors and readers.

Moskowitz also started and organization called The Lost Books Club, for people to try to get other books that are great but "lost" back into print. I think that is a wonderful idea. Dow Mossman isn't the only one who wrote one book, then dropped off the litereary map without publishing another.

I grew up across the street from The Constant Reader Bookshop, which had a big sign painted on the bricks of the side of the building that started off with the words "Out of Print". As a very early reader, I thought that it said "Out of Paint", and that confused me. If you were out of paint, how and why would you paint that on your sign? My mom or dad explained what it said and what that meant. I was saddedn to hear that books went out of print. I thought of books as something that were always around. Once it was published, you could always get one.

Maybe someday that will be true.