Photo: Mitch Haddad/ABC

I picked up reading late because I grew up dyslexic. When I went to college, a friend who was a big reader got me started on a number of writers, including Hemingway. It's funny, I'll read English novels—and they're interesting—but I find that I really like American voices.

Right now I'm in the middle of On Writing, by Stephen King. He articulates so well the idea that writing is a kind of telepathy. You communicate with the author when you read his words; you listen to the story that he's telling, and he puts these ideas in your head. When you open a book, you let someone show you another way of thinking. That's what happened to me with these books, which I realize are all by American writers.
— As told to Mamie Healey