Our Armenian friend in Fresno used to read our fortunes. First she poured the thick sweet Turkish coffee into the tiny cup. Then when we got to the bottom where the grounds looked like mud, she'd turn the cup upside down, wait a few minutes, and tell our fortune. She usually batted about 100% -- in terms of fortunes coming true. The secret of her success? She was a serial optimist. Never saw a cup she didn't like or a fortune that wasn't fair. No one who received her gift of knowledge ever heard a discouraging word. Once she told me -- "Oh, I see a letter with a check in it!" Two days later, the letter came with surprising funds. Often she'd say, "You're going on a journey! It's going to be fun." "Well, I have to drive home," I told her. "Yes -- what fun!"

In Miami our daughter took us to a great Middle Eastern restaurant where we lingered for hours. The meal ended with Turkish coffee. Naturally I read everyone's cup just as I was trained to do in Fresno. "Oh, you're going on a journey...you will soon see lots of money!" And so on. The wife of the restaurant came over to our table and listened for a little while and then she offered me a job reading coffee cups for her customers. "Like in the old country," she said. My grandfather, who came from "the old country" would laugh. He who read the Harvard Classics, every page scored with marginal notes and words he looked up in the dictionary. He spoke with a heavy Hungarian accent, English wasn't easy for him. But he was a great reader. As is everyone in our family.

And now we turn to my granddaughter Shai pictured below. It's Christmas day in that snapshot -- or rather Christmas night. Everyone's off to bed. But Shai. She's reading the book we gave her -- Claudia Gray's Evernight.

Shai's the girl who wouldn't read when she was younger. Then one day last summer she started reading. And now she's a teen demon devourer of supernatural tales. This would make my grandfather happy. As well as our friend, the coffee cup reader in Fresno.

I always knew you'd be a reader, Shai. A coffee cup told me so.