I have a reputation as a complete nitwit when it comes to fiction, with no feel or real interest in it. I’m all about nonfiction.

But when I was in Asheville last week, I realized that Thomas Wolfe is from there, and his 1929 novel Look Homeward, Angel is set in a fictional town based on Asheville. All I knew about the book is that it’s about a young man from a small Southern town eager to leave it.

I don’t like fiction, I told myself. Don’t waste your money. 

But it was Asheville, and the novel’s theme is relevant to the book I’ve just written, and … well, I stopped off at the bookstore on the way out of town and picked up a copy. Started it on the plane to Dallas today.

It’s good.

There, now I’ve jinxed it. Still, I thought you should know. Anybody else here read the thing?