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Sometimes I just need a break from words.

As a reporter, I spend the majority of my day considering, contemplating and critiquing words. Discarding words. Substituting words. Reading other people's words.

I must. Choose. Words. Carefully.

By the time I get home, I need to clear my head of words.

But last month, Afghan author Khaled Hosseini came to North Carolina. He spoke to packed auditoriums in Charlotte and Greensboro. Thousands -- let me repeat this -- thousands came to hear an author talk about his books. These followers of his words, came to hear what inspired his books.

I sat in the audience. Listening to his every word.

John Irving came to UNCG. Though attendance didn't come close to matching Hosseini's appearance, there couldn't have been a more attentive crowd. Hanging on his every word.

Then there was the annual Will Read for Food fundraiser, in which local authors read their works. This year, eight writers read, raising $1,100 to help immigrant and refugee families in Greensboro.

Their words enthralled me.

The pitch and timbre of their voices. Their phrasing of a particular word. It was as melodious as a John Coltrane composition to my ears.

If their words had been food, I would have chewed every bite with each molar and incisor, slowly extracting their juices until all that was left was mere flavor.

I must confess, I do not spend each evening with such appreciation for words. No, when I go home, it is usually the television -- not the stacks of books throughout our home -- that beckons me.

It's not even intellectual programming that I turn to. Remote in hand, The Discovery Channel, public television and C-SPAN pass as if I'm shuffling a deck of cards.

The remote stops on mindless shows that perpetuate shallow celebrity gossip. It's mental junk food, making my brain fat and sluggish with empty calories that will never sustain me.

But recently, I saw a bumper sticker that's been in my head like a melody that I just can't shake. It's on the window of The Space on Tate Street. The Space is a combination art gallery, used book and music store and gathering place for creative types.

It says: Fight Prime Time Read a Book.

Fight Prime Time. Read a book.

Word.

Contact Tina Firesheets at 373-3498 or tina.firesheets@news-record.com