Sunday Afternoon Tea - The Joys of Bookish Friends

Last week a precious bookish friend asked if I would be willing to read an advanced copy of her new book.  I messaged my daughter that I thought it cute she asked for the obvious answer is... I will read anything she writes.  Such is my affection for my bookish friends... readers and writers.

Most of my bookish friends are those with whom I share a common vocabulary found in the books we have read and the authors we admire.  It is in this connection that we share a type of literary shorthand where one word or a name or perhaps a place from a favorite book is all that we need to totally understand what is happening at the moment.

For instance, there are those family and friends who cohabit the world created by Lewis, Tolkien, and friends.  They think nothing of Miss Potter chatting with inanimate objects and prefer their rodents wearing pinafores (as my daughter says her mother does).

We long for a peaceful place like Rivendell and desire to sip a pint... or a cup of good coffee... in an English pub with friends who weave words into lovely poems and prose.  We want to share elevensies with a Hobbit and afternoon tea with Grandfather and Henrietta.

I have bookish friends who believe Father Tim is the wisest pastor in all of literature and adopting a "dog as big as a Buick" is quite understandable.  Even for those of who prefer felines as pets.  We may have shed a few tears over the years as favorite characters passed on and the passage of time brought changes to Mitford as well as our own towns.

There are bookish friends and family for whom the term "kindred spirits" brings an immediate memory of an adopted orphan who tends to get into various scrapes but is true to her best friends... and we all see a bit of ourselves in her books.

Bookish friends understand when they call and they are told one cannot talk at the moment for one is in the midst of reading a particularly exciting section of a book or that the baby is napping and it is the only time to read a few chapters before beginning dinner.

Bookish friends are able to overcome differences in politics and religion by the agreed upon heroes we find in the authors we love.  For instance, I am certain Tasha Tudor and I would not agree upon religion (for she believed in some odd spirituality at times) but I thoroughly enjoyed the way she turned her own world into the look and feel of a previous century... in her home and in her books.

There have been instances while walking the gravel lane to the rural mailbox in the midst of falling snow that I think of Tasha in her red cape with her corgis at her side, walking to pick up her mail in her lovely Christmas DVD called Take Peace.

It is not only those bookish friends who share an appreciation of the same books that I love to chat with in person or online.  There are friends who are so talented in the way they put words together that I tend to drop what I'm doing to read their latest books or blog posts.

I probably came close to stalking my friend Lanier's website as I looked up and archived many of her Advent and Christmas related blog posts a few years ago.  They take my breath away in their beauty.  I find myself reading them when I need inspiration on how to write (for I believe one learns to write well by reading the works of excellent writers).

There are writers I know fairly well and those with whom I have a  nodding acquaintance online.  Which is one of the good things about technology in the way we can use it to maintain friendships with those in far away places.

This subject could take a year of blog posts so I had better end this post soon.  I will say that my greatest joy as far as bookish people I hold dear came in raising two bookish children, who each married bookish spouses, and are raising bookish grandchildren.  ;)

Of course, my favorite Book is one which was inspired by the Holy Spirit and tells us the Story of the Ages.  The Book that relates the Story of which Tolkien shared with Lewis as "True Myth"... and for that, those of us who love Narnia can take great joy.

Mentioned in this Blog Post
Miss Potter (the DVD)... here.
The Lord of the Rings books... here.
The Hobbit book... here.
A City of Bells... here.
At Home in Mitford (the first Mitford novel)... here.
Anne of Green Gables... here.
Tasha Tudor's Take Peace Christmas DVD... here.
The Chronicles of Narnia books... here.

Lanier's Books blog... here.

Disclaimer:  Most links to Amazon.com are Associate links.

Photo:  Instagram photo of my Living Room bookshelves.