August 5, 2013

Literature Friends are the very best friends...


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.