Guten abend!…Henry K here; I em zo sorry, Sally, but I em speakink at ze UN on zat day, so I cennot attend your bookverms, much es ay vould like to. By ze way, I, of course, knew Ayn Rand personally many years ago – did you know her real name vas Rosenbaum? Ve Cherman/Russina Jews must stick togezzer. Jawohl! Love Henry xxx

That was nice of Henry, but he isn’t coming – is he? In 2011, I saw the feature length  interview of Kissinger by Niall Ferguson, which was riveting – Henry was riveting, even in old age – and I was hooked. He would have been a great ‘feather in my cap’ at “bookverms”, especially as he knew Ayn Rand, but it is not to be. Still no word yet from the others on my wish-list… I’m rather pinning my hopes on Mel Gibson now because he may not have as many work commitments as the rest. Chris said he thought that I would find Brad Pitt boring. “Poppycock,” I replied. (I knew Chris was just jealous.)

Incidentally, I made a typing error yesterday when writing that “Atlas Shrugged” had nearly “10200 pages” instead of the actual 1,200 pages, which, let’s face it, is almost as daunting a prospect. Last night I looked at the huge volume, thought better of attempting to read it, and didn’t even pick it up; this morning I picked it up, opened it, saw the minuscule print as a blur and winced.

“You’ll never read it,” offered Chris, obviously thinking of all the lonely nights and days ahead of him if I was to attempt such a feat.

“It’s quite interesting… but I can see where it’s going and I don’t even like the characters.”

“Then don’t even think about reading it,” said Chris.

“Do you think Henry K. actually read his friend’s ‘piece de resistance’?” I asked.

“No,he was probably too busy advising presidents and writing himself. I expect he did the same as you and read the first two chapters.”

“Won’t you change your mind and come to bookclub with me?” I asked with a smile.

“Have you asked Goldie Hawn to come?”

“No, I’m waiting to see if Mel Gibson can make it… or Brad…”

And that’s how we have left it. By the way, what is the name Mel short for? Is is Melanie?