I overhear two erudite friends talking about recent books they exchanged with one another. I feel intensely jealous they're sharing some book excitement without me.
"What books?" I demand to know.
They graciously share their interests and offer to loan each other's books to me.
How lucky I am to have stumbled into their conversation. Two books! It is a few days later, when I start the first book.
It is from a friend, I learned about Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gifts From the Sea. Another friend introduced me to Mary Frances Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; and yet another friend who insisted I read The Book Thief. The Great Work of Your Life came wrapped in Christmas reds and golds--from a friend. Cormac McCarthy's The Road was a nod from yet another friend. Before I started teaching AP Lit, my dear friend, a retired AP Literature teacher took me into her library and handed me several books on poetry analysis and literature behemoths.
I depend on friends for recommendations: dentists, doctors, but the one I relish most is book recommendations. Don't give me friends with fancy boats and wake boards; don't give me friends who loan their cabins; don't give me friends who remember my birthday or who throw lavish lunches; give me friends who read books.
I need friends who read. Friends who talk about a book that changed her perspective. Give me a friend who will loan a book and want to know what you thought about it. Give me a friend who will gift me a book, a friend who will take me to a different world, who will expand my ideas, who will challenges my comfortable box.
The only thing better than a great friend is a great friend with a great book~~recommendation.
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