Some books have such an impact on us that we remember vividly where and when we read them. I consumed War and Peace, for example, while living in San Diego and working in Hunter’s Bookstore. I can remember the words filling my lunch hour, tasting them along with my sandwich and coffee. Anna Karenina I read in Paris, spending some time in the upstairs sanctuary of Shakespeare & Co. Ulysses I read, much too fast, in a small border town in Switzerland.

The book that probably had the greatest impact on my life was Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel. I was in my early twenties, living alone in Connecticut. I began the book early in the afternoon, read until three in the morning, fell asleep, woke up and read again, and then slept and read until I finished the last paragraph. Putting the book aside, I knew my life would never be the same again. I stood, as Wolfe wrote, “alone in darkness, far from the lost world of the streets and faces.”

Within a month I’d abandoned my doctoral work in medieval history and moved to Boston, to Beacon Hill’s Backside, then appropriately named, for it was, as I discovered, a place of addicts, prostitutes, and a good number of people that you wouldn’t want to meet in an alleyway, lighted or dark. Once, after I’d tracked down the man who had burglarized my apartment, only to find that the police could then do nothing, one of the officers said to me, “You don’t look like you belong here.” He might have been right, but there was no place else to go — not on the money I had.

It was there, living in my rented room and working in a bookstore, that I read everything by or about Wolfe I could get my hands on — his novels, his correspondence, even his plays. His descriptions of North Carolina made me homesick. His descriptions of city life in Boston and New York gave me a keener sense of my own circumstances. His wild poetry called to my heart. He made me want to read, to write; but most of all, Thomas Wolfe made me want to live.

Because of this intense love for Wolfe’s writing, I was recently dismayed to hear that fewer and fewer students in North Carolina are reading Wolfe in their school curriculum. I asked Steve Hill, Historic Site Manager of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, if he knew the reasons for Wolfe’s diminished readership.

“I’ve asked teachers that question,” he said. “The curriculum in North Carolina is very much geared to year-end testing. Wolfe is not on the test.”

When asked why fewer people in general are reading Thomas Wolfe, Hill replied, “Sometimes it’s a mystery to us here at the memorial. You have to work for Wolfe. That might be one reason. People these days want everything immediately.”

It’s time to strike a blow for our native son. This year I’m helping 10 home school students prepare for their Advanced Placement English Literature examination. The second book on their reading list is Look Homeward, Angel. We’ll do the tour, study the museum artifacts, visit Wolfe’s grave in Riverside Cemetery, and participate in “A Walk Through Dixieland,” the celebration on Oct. 1.

I hope to see you there.