What Happens When People Ask Me About Books

Yesterday my parents and I were in this beautiful place for the wedding of a family friend:

That doesn't have a lot to do with what I'm about to tell you except that I started thinking about it while I was in this beautiful place, and for some reason places are usually linked with thoughts in my mind, so I figured I should include a picture. 

This thought train actually started a while back at a party held by the family friend who's wedding we attended. My parents and I were chatting with a drama teacher and somehow we got onto the subject of "kids not reading anymore" and then my mom mentioned that I was into writing/reading and the drama teacher asked if I had any book recommendations for teens. I don't know what happened. Suddenly I was listing off book title after book title, the first being The Goose Girl of course, but then branching out into whole other genres. I think she appreciated it, even if she might have been a little overwhelmed by the time I stopped talking.

 I thought this little outburst of bookish enthusiasm was a one time thing until yesterday, when the subject of conversation moved to the Texas Book Festival, which as you may recall, is happening next weekend (!!). As expected I went into hyper drive and gushed for five minutes about how excited I am. (Which is ALOT.) Obviously I can't speak for the other person, but my enthusiastic outbursts are always a little strange for me. I'm usually a pretty quiet person. I speak when I have something meaningful to say...or when the conversation turns to books. And it's usually not until the end of my rant that I stop to think about wether the person I'm talking to is actually interested in what I have to say. What is it about reading that makes we want to yell book titles from a hill top?

Despite the occasional awkwardness, I think I've finally made peace with my little outbursts. Books are something I'm passionate about. I enjoy talking about them, especially with people who share my passion. Sure I may seem a little weird to people who aren't reader types, but I'm sure if I got them talking about their passion they'd want to shout about it on a hill top, too. Well...maybe. 

So next time you're at a party, find someone and get them talking about something they're passionate about. Chances are you'll learn something new, and maybe you can then steer the conversation back to books, which is what you really wanted to talk about. ;)

Photo by Jeff Mills.