The author shares personal essays on diverse topics ranging from literary pets and cursive writing to book inscriptions and the pleasures of science fiction conventions.

Mr. Zinsser, I presume -- Style is the man -- Armchair adventures -- Bookish pets -- Paper -- This is a column -- Scribble, scribble -- Books on books -- Text mess -- Twilight of an author -- Spring book sales -- Memories of Marseille -- Hail to thee, blithe spirit! -- Synonym toast -- Cowboys and clubmen -- Grades -- Anglophilia -- After the golden age -- Anthologies and collections -- Rocky Mountain low -- The fugitive -- Hot enough for you? -- Wonder books -- Readercon -- Aurora -- Out of print -- Thrift stories -- Musical chairs -- The evidence in the (book) case -- Charlottesville -- Then and now -- Mencken day -- New and old -- Dirty pictures -- Going, going, gone -- Castles in space -- Waving, not drowning -- Oberlin -- Jacques Barzun, and others -- What's in a name? -- Language matters -- "I'm done" -- Poe and Baudelaire -- In praise of small presses -- Christmas reading -- Books for the holidays -- Let us now praise Dover Books -- A dreamer's tale -- Money -- Book projects -- Ending up -- A positively, final appearance -- Afterword.