On books

Today, I showed my mom this video.

At first, she was a little confused. “He has to be over thirty.”

I laughed. “Thirty two or thirty three, I think. But I don’t care. He’s my biggest nerd crush ever.”

Soon, she started chuckling. At the end, she expressed an interest in watching more of their videos, wondering how to subscribe to them. This is a big step for her. She doesn’t even watch my videos unless I leave them open on her computer.

Then I mentioned that he was an author, and she asked to read one of his books before leaving to run errands. I promptly went to my room, picked up Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns, then, as an afterthought, added The Geography of Bliss, Waiter Rant, and Queen’s Own Fool to the stack and left them for her on her desk.

And that got me thinking how often it happens that I’m looked at for book recommendations. I used to loan stacks and stacks of books to people, choosing them carefully from my own collection so as to fit the person best. During my release when I would sit in the library, people would drift over to my table and ask what kind of book they should read for class. I’d ask a few questions, gt a sense for what they’d enjoy, and give them a few to look at.

With all this in mind, I can’t imagine a career in anything other than literature. I love books more than any other kind of entertainment; yes, even YouTube. In fact, the three days I spent rereading the Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce I didn’t even glance at my computer.

I want to be an author so badly. I want to be able to share all the things in my head to more than five people. I want to be looked at as a trusted expert on picking books. Because more than I want to share my own writing, I want to share the writing I grew up with. I want everyone to read The Last Days of Summer and Looking for Alaska and The Burmudez Triangle and Trickster’s Choice.

My best friend got a Nook yesterday for her birthday. I’ve already made my opinions clear on this topic, but I understand the appeal nonetheless. However, I don’t care how many people get nooks and kindles. They better not stop printing physical copies of books.

Right now, I want to do an experiment. Everyone who even glanced at this post, please post a comment. It doesn’t have to be about anything. It can just say “hi”. I just want to see how many people are actually looking at this. And I’m going to start doing it once I get done with my blogging break.