Don’t tell Larry Bowa or Kevin Kennedy, but Giants reliever LaTroy Hawkins has read a B-O-O-K. Heck, he’s read at least two. From MLB.com’s Rich Draper (link courtesy Sam Hunt)

With time on his hands during his stint on the disabled list — the setup specialist was activated Monday — the pitcher would peruse the Borders bookstore kitty-corner from SBC Park looking for gems.

“The Tipping Point,” a nonfiction look at how luck, good timing and good thinking made the difference in America’s corporate world, was among his favorites.

“I even have a Borders card,” said Hawkins (above). “I read “The Kite Runner,” [involving social and political upheaval in Afghanistan] and that was the longest one, about 400 pages. I think that’s about my limit.”

But now those page-turners are back on the shelf, with the reliever over his ulnar nerve problem, which caused tingling and numbness in his right arm and, at least at the start, high anxiety.

“It’s been a long time coming, but now it’s here. I think I got past the anxious part, and now I’m in the no-numbness part,” said Hawkins, who has pitched only four innings for San Francisco since being acquired May 28 from the Chicago Cubs. “I’ve forgotten the last time it tingled.

“Freaky, flukey, I don’t know what it was, but it was uncomfortable,” he said of the injury. “Hopefully I can get back to my old self now … the old self, not the self of this year.”

Ah, this year. Hawkins is 1-5 with a 5.48 ERA overall this season and with the Giants is 0-1 with a 15.75 ERA after giving up seven runs in his four games.

His “old self” was the Hawk in 2004 for the Cubs when he earned 25 saves with a 2.63 ERA, appearing in 77 games.

The Giants’ bullpen has done well this past week — 2-0 with three saves and 1.64 ERA — but a healthy Hawkins will theoretically solidify the corps.

“The DL was nerve-wracking, but it’s out of my mind now,” he said. “I just want to pitch.”