So I’m currently sitting in a Starbucks in Maryland waiting
for an old friend to arrive; I decided to try and get here early so I could
chat with someone on Skype and attempt to write a blog post before going to
Sean’s tonight. It’s mostly out of fear,
since Sean is pretty much the only person who encourages me to blog – he also
reads all my posts and if I get this done before I see him, he’ll know it exists
without me even telling him. I had no
idea what I was going to write about, but since I just came from Sunday Funday
(and hangover Monday) with Richard, I want to write about my friends.
Let me be more specific: I want to write about my literature
friends. We all have friends that fall
into different categories and we all have friends that serve different purposes
in our lives. Some are people we like to
go out and drink with, some are shopping friends, or music friends, or work
friends, but I have a select group of friends that are my literature
friends. We talk about books, we
exchange suggestions, we argue about the value of one author over another, and
we nerd out together. The majority of my
friends do enjoy reading (I’m obnoxious like that), which makes me very lucky,
but there are a few that truly are my literature friends. I trust their recommendations more than
anyone else, and they rarely steer me wrong.
The 52 books that comprised the original reading list for
the blog (I swear I will eventually get to all of them!) were a compilation of
suggestions from friends and family members.
Those that weren’t direct suggestions from people were still often through
word of mouth; I remembered someone (maybe I couldn’t remember who, but I knew
it was someone!) who had read the book and really enjoyed it. I love when my friends get me books as
presents; it has to be a careful selection, but when someone gives me a book I
end up loving I feel like they know the truth of me.
There is also something magnificent about sharing a favorite
book with a friend. That’s an instant
connection that cannot be replicated. My
dad and I both LOVE The Stand (the
unabridged edition, obviously) and it’s something we share. We talk about it, we discuss movie options
and make jokes about characters. Diana
and I shared a physical copy of A Movable
Feast (sorry for stealing it for so long, novia!), Richard and I shared
every English class at McDaniel (for three years, I think!). I shared David
Sedaris with a friend from work – really though, I read his stories OUTLOUD to
him one day after school. That’s how
great my friends are.
But in honor of Sean, one of my best literature friends (and
all around friend), I want to share my favorite book-nerd-friendship
story. My senior year of college I was
ridiculously overwhelmed by senior seminar, student teaching, and the impending
fear of adulthood. Sean called me to
calm me down – standard best friend behavior – but then he went one
better. He read to me. Over the phone. He read a chapter from what has now become
one of my favorite books to me over the phone from another state. He told me to calm the f*ck down and shut the
f*ck up and he read to me.
Nothing better.
The book, in case you were wondering, is Bird By Bird, which I use when I
teach. My 7th graders gave me
a copy when I was finished student teaching. They had all signed it. It’s currently at my friend Joe’s house
because I’m passing on the same thing Sean gave me. Also I have two of his books that I need to
read and return. I love my literature
friends, but I am SO BAD at keeping track of the books we all pass around.
