Have you read any good books lately?

When some former high school classmates recently invited me to join a book club, I almost instantly turned them down.

While I love to read, I hadn’t read a good book that didn’t involve pregnancy or child care in way longer than I should probably admit. I’m addicted to magazines (a job hazard, I suppose) and hadn’t given books a second thought since before I had children.

So I politely responded to the invitation that I’d love to stop by and hang out sometime but that I didn’t think I’d be reading any books. Thank you very much.

Then I happened to notice that month’s book — “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett — at Borders and made an impulse buy. OK, I thought, maybe I could just buy the book and see how it went.

Sucker. They got me. I loved it.

Then the next two books were selected and I immediately said I didn’t have any interest in them. And certainly I couldn’t find the time to read another book.

Then somehow I found myself reading those books anyway — and loved them (“The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” both by Khaled Hosseini). So much for judging a book by its cover.

Maybe I can handle this book club thing after all. I missed reading books more than I thought.

You could almost hear the collective gasp among book lovers after the recent announcement that Borders Books would soon shut its doors both locally and nationally.

As the largest bookstore in the area — and one of only a handful left in Stark County — the closing has been hard to swallow for a lot of people.

The closing means About’s partnership with the store to showcase interesting reads also is coming to a close.

Our local Borders store has been a great partner for About, providing us with a wide range of selections for our monthly books page feature. The staff there has been wonderfully accommodating to About, and we’ll miss working with them.

That said, I am confident our books page isn’t going to miss a beat. I think it’s about to get even stronger.

About has formed a new partnership with the Stark County District Library. We’re excited about the partnership. I believe it will be great for everyone involved — with book-lovers benefiting the most. What could be better than a book that comes recommended by a librarian? Check out the new books feature in this issue on Page 16 and also on Page H-7 of the About Your Home magazine.

Oh, and fair warning to my fellow book club members: I bet I’ll come armed with many new book recommendations next month.