"There is some selfishness involved, because I figure that if everyone reads a lot there’ll be more people to have intelligent conversations with. What’s more, if someone reads a book that I haven’t read yet, they can tell me about it and I can learn whether or not I’m interested."

-- Russell Wattenberg, founder of the Baltimore Book Thing, a nonprofit giving away free books in David Simon's favorite city. I don't know, Elizabeth, he sounds like a non-scoundrel to me! (Via non-scoundrel Paul Brady.)