I'm no psychic. I've never had a strange, vivid dream that later came true. Never had the sense that a disaster is looming, only to have that very disaster occur. So I'll have to classify this latest occurrence as simple synchronicity.

I was recently discussing a book I loved more than 20 years ago with my co-worker Marty Meitus. We were searching for a new book for our Rocky Book Club (last pick, in case you missed it: Annie Proulx's Close Range, a wonderful short story collection) and I thought this title would be fun. But I hadn't read the book since its release in 1984. Was it really as good as I remembered?

Unfortunately, to find out, I would have to reread it - which immediately put it at the bottom of a very long list of books I hope to get to before cataracts set in. Which meant that the Rocky Book Club wouldn't be seeing it any time soon.

And then, what should cross my desk last week? A reissue of that very title.

Does anyone else remember Olive Ann Burns' Cold Sassy Tree? Set in the South at a time when cars were just being introduced, I recall it as an uplifting story, filled with quirky but lovable characters - a story with more heart than heavy themes. Burns was 60 years old, an unknown, when the book hit big. Then, in the middle of writing the sequel, Leaving Cold Sassy, she died of cancer.

I'm not sure which affected me more: her book or the story of her life, which seemed so tragic at the time. Here's a woman who finally achieves phenomenal success and then enjoys it for only a few years before being struck down.

Anyway, I still wonder whether the book is as fun as I remember. Perhaps some of you will pick up a copy and let me know what you think. It's $13.95 from Houghton Mifflin's Mariner imprint.

But remember, I'm no psychic. Don't expect me to pick up on your brain waves - you'll have to do the hard work and drop me a line (thornp@RockyMountainNews.com).

MEANWHILE...

Other publishers are also eyeing old favorites:

• Scribner is rereleasing Margaret Mitchell's classic Gone With the Wind in paperback. Its gauzy cover art, with a troubled-looking Southern belle in the foreground and a plantation lighted in burnt orange in the background, makes me dream of holing up somewhere to read it nonstop, the way I did when I was 15.

The book is being released in advance of the second sequel to Mitchell's story, due out in November. Titled Rhett Butler's People, the novel is a retelling of the story from Rhett Butler's point of view.

• And Touchstone is bringing back old sizzlers many of us sped guiltily through years ago, including Jilly Cooper's Riders, Shirley Conran's Lace and Harold Robbins' A Stone for Danny Fisher. Each book comes tagged as "The Classic Bestseller," which, as anyone who has read these potboilers knows, doesn't mean classic as much as it means bestseller.

A HALLMARK MOMENT

In case you missed the news, Charles Simic has been named the new U.S. poet laureate. Simic is the 15th poet to receive the honor, following Donald Hall.

The Washington Post recently ran an interview with the 69-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, who offered advice on how to become a poetry lover. According to the Post, Simic tells neophytes to find an anthology of poems at the library, open it at random and read a stanza aloud. Even though you won't like most of what you read, he says, read and enjoy whatever you like.

When it comes to learning to appreciate fine verse, there's hope for everyone, he adds. Er, almost everyone.

"If greeting-card verse brings you to tears at the age of 70," says the poet, "well, what can I say? You might be beyond help."