Wary of reading 19 rah-rah stories about a place already filled with insanely proud people, BB expected not to like Brooklyn Was Mine, an anthology of essays by local authors about Brooklyn past, present, and pre-boom.

But I was defenseless from page one. The Union Street Bridge, a couple hundred feet from my first Brooklyn apartment, figures heavily in Phillip Lopate’s introduction, and with every reference to it — “the thump-thump of cars passing over the bridge’s metal plates”; “this strange combination of industrial, residential and bucolic” — my heart did a little nostalgic leap.

Not that you have to be a card-carrying Brooklyn lover to like these stories. In one of the most moving essays, Brooklyn is merely a backdrop as Colin Harrison gives us a touching look at his relationship with his son, through the prism of pep talks and little league games on ball fields from Marine Park to Dyker Beach.

Nor is every essay a home run, but there are enough to make the collection worthwhile, like Darcey Steinke’s piece about her walks in Prospect Park, its wildness a catalyst for her own regeneration as she starts fresh in Brooklyn, post divorce. Philip Dray’s story about his 80-something landlady is a vivid evocation of Northside Williamsburg, pre-Bedford blowup. And Jonathan Lethem’s Jackson Pollock-like word burst, “Ruckus Flatbush,” is fantastic, of course.

So yes, this book had me at hello, and that was before I learned that all of its proceeds were being donated to DDDB’s anti-Atlantic Yards legal fund — yet another incentive to put this on your shelf.

Susan Choi, Jennifer Egan and Darin Strauss read their essays tomorrow, Jan. 9, 7:30 pm at the Park Slope Barnes & Noble (267 7th Ave. at 6th St.), and Darcey Steinke, Emily Barton and Alexandra Styron read at BookCourt (163 Court at Pacific) Tues., Jan 15 at 7 pm.

Sent by Nicole

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