I was always a reader. As a kid, I walked to the library several times a week and _________up late reading with a flashlight. I checked out so many books and returned them so _________ that the librarian once roared, “Don’t take home so many books _________ you’re not going to read them all.”

“But I did read them all,” I said.

I was an English major at university and went on to get a masters in literature When I created my online dating _________, I made my screen name(网名) – “missbibiliophile59595. Filling out the “favorite books” section, I let my taste in literature _________ for me: One Hundred Years of Solitude, A Moveable Feast, White Teeth, How to Read the Air.

_________, I realized it had been more than two years since I had read most of those _________. I had stopped reading gradually. I tried to _________my bookish persona (人设) .I joined book clubs that I never attended. I requested a library book everyone was reading, only to return it _________.

I still __________ the idea of reading. __________ I found a bookstore, I would linger__________   the shelves for hours as if __________ up with old friends, picking out books I had read and buying new ones. But it was __________ to me: I was becoming a person I did not know.

David was my first online __________. His profile (简介) said he liked to read, so I asked him about his last book. His face __________ and his fingers danced. David read much more than I did, about a book or two a week. We seemed a (n) __________ couple: me, a five-foot-three black woman__________   to a Caribbean mother, and him, a six foot-four white guy from Ohio. But as we got to know each other, our __________ faith and mutual love of books __________ our gaps.

It's often said that you can judge a person by looking at what's on their bookshelves. Well, when I asked myself this question a few years ago, I made a(n) _______ discovery. Pretty much all the _______ on my bookshelves were written by British authors, and there was almost nothing in translation from other _______. What a shame! So, I decided to begin my _____________ reading project.

But how could I find books from much of the rest of the world? I had to ask for _______. So in October 2011, I started my blog, and I _______ a short appeal (呼吁) online. Within hours, people began to _______. At first, it was friends and colleagues. Then it was friends of friends. And soon, it was _______.

Four days later, I got a(n) _______ from a woman called Rafidah in Kuala Lumpur. She said she loved my project, ________ if she could go to her local English-language bookshop and choose my Malaysian book and post it to me. I ________ accepted, and a few weeks later, a package ________ containing nothing but two books — Rafidah's choice from Malaysia, and a book from Singapore that she had also ________ for me. At the time, I was ________ that a stranger more than 6,000 miles away would go to such lengths to help someone she would probably never ________.

But Rafidah's kindness ________ to be the pattern for that year. Time and again, people went out of their ________ to help me. And books often came from ________ sources. A writer even emailed me an unpublished translation of his novel to me, allowing me to become one of the ________ people ever to read that book in English.

That year, thanks to kind strangers from the four ________ of the world. I read books from over 100 countries.

Reading good books is one of the greatest pleasures in life. It ________our happiness when we are cheerful. and lessens our sorrow when we are sad. A good book may absorb our attention so   ________ that for the time being we forget our surroundings.

Whatever may be our main purpose in reading, good books should never fail to give us________. With a good book in our hands we will never be________ .Whether the characters in the book are taken from real life or are purely________· they may become our companions and make us laugh. The people we meet in books may ________ us either because they are similar to our close friends or because they present unfamiliar types whom we are glad to welcome as new acquaintances. Our human friends sometimes ________ us, but the friends we make in books always respect us. By turning the pages we can ________ them without any fear of hurting their feelings. When our human friends ________ us, good books are always there to give us sympathy and encouragement.

One of the most valuable gifts from books is ________ . Few of us can travel far from home, but all of us can lead varied lives through the pages of book. When we wish to ________from the dull realities of everyday life, a book will help us when nothing else can. To travel by book we don’t have to ________and save a lot of money. Through books we may get the thrill of adventure without________ . We can climb high mountains or cross the hot sands of the desert.________ , through books the whole world is ours for the asking. The ________ of our literary experiences are almost unlimited.