Readers Get Walking

   For a Christmas gift exchange the women at church each brought an untagged gift. Each package was numbered, and then we drew numbers to see who got what.
   We opened our gifts in numerical order so we could share each other's surprise. I picked the highest number, so I saw everyone else delight over jewelry, candles, ornaments and other neat stuff. When my turn finally came, I tore open the paper only to find a dingy gold book titled Walking Across Egypt.
Now there's nothing wrong with receiving a book for Christmas. In fact, I buy everyone in my family a book for Christmas. But this was a fun event. The book should have had a fun title. Like one Erma Bombeck or Lewis Grizzard would write.
   I'd just finished a book about the abuse of women in the Middle East, so maybe my mind was still in that rut. Now who would walk across Egypt? A chain gang? And this was long before Survivor so I knew it was nothing like that. Then I thought this is a church thing. Maybe it's some dull historical novel about the Israelites. I could always trade it in at a used bookstore for something fun.
Then the pastor's wife, who I assumed brought the book, said, "You haven't read that yet, have you? It's so funny I laughed out loud." Walking across Egypt funny?
   A week later, I passed it on to my mother-in-law. "It's so funny you'll laugh out loud," I told her. Within months it traveled through the whole Larson family. We still laugh about it. 
   That was back in 1990. Today the book, by Southern writer Clyde Edgerton, has a fun updated cover and is the 2004 selection for Gwinnett Reads. And you don't have to pass one copy around to everyone you know. You can check out reading kits-tote bags with ten books and a study guide-so your book club or family can read it and discuss it together. Or you can join in the discussion groups that will soon be forming at the libraries.
   The book is more than just funny. Through the antics of 78-year old Mattie Rigsbee and a juvenile delinquent who happens into her life, the book "explores intergenerational relationship with poignancy and respect." I know it traveled well through four generations in my family.
   The library carries the book on CD and audiotape, so if you like listening to books while sitting in traffic, Gwinnett offers plenty of opportunity for that! 
   Walking Across Egypt is also an award winning movie starring Ellen Burstyn and Home Improvement's Jonathan Taylor Thomas. So you can read, listen or watch and still get in on Gwinnett's summer reading fun.
   On August 20, Edgerton will come to town for the Gwinnett Reads grand finale. Details will follow in a future column. In the meantime, get Walking Across Egypt!

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