"I have never had any doubt that the books I read as a boy influenced the direction of my life, including my life as a writer. I grew up in a small Oklahoma town, but I was fascinated by books about foreign countries. I devoured Kipling, practically memorized Beau Geste (Buccaneer), and lived every moment of the wonderful overseas adventures Richard Halliburton described in travel books, the titles of which I have long since forgotten. For an afternoon of lugging boxes around, I was once offered any book on the shelves by the owner of the tiny local bookstore. I remember that I picked Alec Waugh's Hot Countries (Farrar). Waugh was a bit much for a thirteen-year-old Oklahoma boy, but I had sweated for the book, and I read it.

"I cannot prove that this exotic reading diet was responsible for my having lived and worked much of...