Three Summer activities unite almost all New Englanders: following the Boston Red Sox, eating ice cream at the local dairy bar, and going to the annual town fair. I love the first two but dread the third.

I dread the town fair because … well, perhaps you'll understand why if I tell you what my wife, Gail, said to me a few days ago: "Next week I want us to donate 500 books from our library to the used-book sale at the fair. So you might want to go through your books and pick out what you don't think you'll need anymore."

If you love your books as much as I do, you understand how impossible it is to imagine any book in your library that you'll not need anymore. Even lending a book to a friend is a personal crisis for me. It tests my Christian generosity. I want to encase a loaned book in something similar to what the banks use when they surrender money to a bank robber--something that explodes with indelible ink if the book is not returned in a week.

Gail raises this book-donation idea ...