This Is The First Step
b'As Claire Tomalin writes in her book Jane Austen: A Life, we can trace the beginnings of Jane Austen\\u2019s greatness to her father\\u2019s library. \\u201cTheir father\\u2019s bookshelves were of primary importance in fostering her talent,\\u201d she writes, \\u201cgiven that the first impulse to write stories comes from being entertained and excited by other people\\u2019s.\\u201d And her father had quite a library, **some 500 volumes.It\\u2019s a crime, we\\u2019ve said, to raise a kid in a house without books. Our job is to surround our kids with...'