Years ago, during summer vacation, I took a whole pile of books out of the library and spent days and days just reading. Today I'd have trouble telling you what most of those books were, never mind what they were about. But there's one little snatch of dialogue from one of the books that has stuck with me all these years — the bit of dialogue, in fact, that gave the book, and later the movie, its name: a snippet of conversation about the color purple. Actually, it's a bit of conversation about appreciation. Shug Avery is talking to her friend Celie, and she says, "More than anything God loves admiration."

"You saying God is vain?" demands Celie.

"No, not vain," replies Shug, "just wanting to share a good thing. I think it [ticks] God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and d…