My husband, Earl, is an avid reader and book collector. In fact, he has his own well-developed library in our spare bedroom.

He reads a variety of authors, but has favorites such as Tony Hillerman, Dick Francis, AgathaChristie, Erle Stanley Gardner, Stephen Frey, Michael Crichton and John Grisham, to name a few. He has collected most of the books by these authors and several others. He also has a variety of books on history.

Over the years, Earl hasbuilt three floor-to-ceiling bookshelves to hold his collections. All three are now chock-full and he is currently in the process of building another to fill the last remaining wall space in his “library” that isn’t already taken by a book shelf, a deer head or a fan of wild turkey feathers - he does have other hobbies.

From the stories I have heard, Earl’s love for books started way back during his elementary school days. He recalls spendingmuch of each summer in his room reading book after book. He would venture to his town’s local library and return with an armload of books to read. The next week he would go back and exchange those for another armload, then delve in for another week of reading. This pattern changed some during his teenage years when he discovered he had to take his nose out of his book to talk to girls. Still, reading remains a favorite pastime.

Earl still enjoys visiting libraries, but prefers now to buy books to add to his ever-growing collection rather than borrowing them. Since purchasing new books can be expensive, he has developed a knack for browsing used book stores, flea markets, garage sales and other discounted sources, looking for bargains. In recentmonths, he has found a fun and frugal online way to get more books. This source also allows him to find new owners for the box full of books he isweeding out of his collection.

The site is www.paperbackswap.com and it has been working really well, except for one little mix-up this past week.

Ordinarily the site operates something like this: Participants list books that they would like to trade. When a request is made for one of the books, the owner prints a mailing label right from the Web site and then pays the postage to send the book to the requester at no charge. In exchange, the sender receives a credit that can be used to obtain any book he or she wishes to purchase, free of charge, from the site. The only cost involved in the exchange is the postage paid by the person sending the book.

Earl has already received a few requests for books he listed on the site, therefore giving him credits to get new ones for himself. This has been so successful that I am getting used to seeing the white book-sized packages with the preprinted labels come in the mail andknow it means he has received another book from one of his favorite writers.

When a familiar looking package arrived one day last week, Earl quickly sliced across the end of the bubble wrap envelope with his pocketknife and prepared to pull out his newest read.

Anticipation turned to confusion when instead of Dick Francis’ “Dead Cert,” the package contained a colorful cardboard child’s book by Max Lucado entitled “Hermie a Common Caterpillar.”

With a couple of e-mails, the error has been straightened out. “Dead Cert” should arrive any day.

Although Hermie tells a sweet story, the book about the pudgy green character’s search for significance didn’t make the cut for a spot on Earl’s bookshelf.

Annette Rowe is a freelance writer and a speech pathologist for the Siloam Springs School District. She can be contacted at awalkinthepark50 @ yahoo.com.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 03/24/2010