Lee Speaks

While diehard fans wait and wonder about whether Harper Lee will ever write again, the reclusive author decided on O, The Oprah Magazine, as a forum for her most recent work. It's in the form of a letter, dealing with reading as a child. Some excerpts:

She says she must have learned to read "from having been read to by my family". "My sisters and brother, much older, read aloud to keep me from pestering them.My mother read me a story every day, usually a children's classic, and my father read from the four newspapers he got through every evening."

Finally, she asks: "And, Oprah, can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer? Some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal." John Updike would approve.