For a long time I used to read before going to bed--the first few pages of \"Combray,\" night after night. Then I got a life and started reading books I could actually finish: vintage mysteries from the 1930s. But as the titles grew more obscure (The Riddle of the Traveling Skull; Y. Cheung, Business Detective), I wondered how to sustain the habit without auctioning my body parts on eBay. The $60-a-year solution? The MERCANTILE LIBRARY, with its exhaustive collection of whodunits (not to... More »
