What a delight to wander, in these many essays, through some fascinating zones within this great academic's mind. Freedman was President of both Dartmouth Universty and the University of Iowa; and was both University Ombudsman and Law Dean at the Universtiy of Pennsylvania. He truly knows whereof he speaks. Here, instead of advocacy, he shares perspectives and joys of his life as a scholar and prominent liberal thinker -- reflecting wonderfully on both the scholarly life and on liberalism (so often unthinkingly maligned in these times the absolutism by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter). As a book collector myself (though hardly on Freedman's scale!), I am particularly fascinated by his essay on the pleasures of collecting books!