Anna Quindlen

Writers are like athletes, in that we admire other writers. When I was a kid, my heroes weren't jocks; they were writers: Rod Serling, former Courier-Journal sports columnist Dave Kindred, the immortal Jim Murray. Later, it was the novelist Pat Conroy and now, one of my contemporaries, Rick Reilly.

And Anna Quindlen.

She wrote a newspaper column for many years at The New York Times, before escaping to do what all of us hacks want to do, sooner or later: Write novels. She still does the back page column at Newsweek. It's a smart blend of observation and compassion. A. Quindlen loves being alive.

I can't tell you how many copies of her pocket-sized inspiration, A Short Guide To A Happy Life, I've given to friends and relatives. I've read it so many times, the pages bear the telltale, black smudge of the morning Enquirer. I'm getting a copy to Josh Hamilton this week. I used my favorite line from that book in a column I did on Hamilton for Wednesday's paper: "All of us want to do well. But if we do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough."

A year or so ago, she wrote her Newsweek column on the pleasure of being alone, in being your own best company. I e-mailed her after that one, expressing agreement and thanking her for making me feel a little less weird about it. I got a response the same day.

I've taught her work to my Advanced Reporting classes at UC, to remind the kids that the best writing is both passionate and compassionate.

A. Quindlen will be here Wednesday night at Joseph-Beth booksellers at Rookwood, 7 p.m., to sign her latest novel.

Never met her. Anticipating the pleasure.