The Joy of Books: Confessions of a Lifelong Reader

``People don't read much anymore,'' laments former TV newsman Burns (Broadcast Blues) in this modest but wide-ranging set of musings on reading and writing. A self-described amateur in the best sense, Burns earnestly surveys the foundation of the oral tradition and the rise of censorship in the ancient world and, more recently, a Midwestern book burning he witnessed. He delves into the motivations of such writers as Benjamin Franklin and William Faulk-ner, proffering his own thoughts on the inspiration behind writers he favors, for example, Kazuo Ishiguro and Tom Wolfe. While Burns rightly bemoans ``aliteracy''-the unwillingness of so many people to read-his criticism of higher education and literary deconstructionists is more curmudgeonly than thoughtful. Serious readers, Burns observes, always have a refuge; indeed, after an account of his young son's path to reading, he concludes with a list of 581 books-classic and contemporary, fiction and nonfiction-that he has enjoyed. (Sept.)