Regarding Dandelion Wine, the wine... my dad made some once. It was kick-ass stuff. A very delicate flavor white wine, distilled from the petals of dandelions (it took forEVER to pluck the flowers, he said), the wine was heady and potent and oh-so-good.

It's one of my two favorite books IN MY LIFE (of which I've read well over 1,000). The other one is "Mystery of the Witches' Bridge" by Barbee Oliver Carleton. "Dandelion Wine" has at least received many reprintings and some attention, "Witches' Bridge" is simply a sadly neglected classic. The other two books I've read which would even closely compare with "Dandelion Wine" are "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee, and "The Member of the Wedding," by Carson McCullers. Little, if anything, else comes even remotely close.

The popularity and success of Harry Potter has me absolutely baffled, largely because I have read so many superior works. (I can see if it was the only thing available, but it's NOT--yet kids, and even many adults, read it to rags. Some people are on their dozenth trip through Book 6 already while I am just struggling near the beginning of Book 5. WHY? Sometimes I've been tempted to believe witchcraft is real and either the entire series or most or all of the readers are bewitched--there's an "Emperor's New Clothes" mass hallucination aspect making people think it's better than it is.)

It isn't a book you can just speed through. It must be savored, every line, every paragraph, every chapter sipped like the very wine that enshrouds its story. Delicious.