If there can be a silver lining in all the craziness in which we live these days, perhaps it is this: With Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s mandate to stay home, we have more time for a good book.

March is Reading Month, and that’s one thing the coronavirus can’t take away from us.

That’s always been the magic of books. When you can’t hop on the highway or a train or a plane because of a virus or any other reason, you still can travel the globe, the universe, the many realms and parallel dimensions of the human imagination, through the pages of a book.

The virus may have halted our St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, but it can’t take away James Joyce. It may extend into Easter, but it can’t stop C.S. Lewis.

So let’s make a record number of pages turned this March is Reading Month, and show that no virus or anything else can keep us truly locked in one place.

(THE ALPENA NEWS)