Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The Book Bunch

Tomorrow is my son Ben's birthday and I am finishing the post for his birthday. It is also the birthday of my friends Ada, Margo, and Scott.

These four birthday celebrants are among the most avid readers I know. I have some other friends who are also Big Readers, but these four take the cake. All but Ben live here in Delaware and the two most common sentences I exchange with them are "so what are you reading?" and "have you read [fill in the blank]?"

Is that merely coincidence?

There is a Talmudic passage that states that every unborn baby has a lit candle by its head so that it can see both into the past and into the future. The unborn baby is all-knowing. At birth, an angel taps it on the lips and the baby forgets everything it learned in the womb, so that it may enter the world in innocence and purity.

When I look at the December 16th bunch, I wonder whether that same angel nonetheless gave them each a little nudge and whispered "try reading."

Happy birthday, my bookish friends!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed that, April. Thank you! By the way....The Road, by Cormac McCarthy...that's what I'm reading now.

Scott

sarah said...

Happy Birthday to Ben all the way from the mountains of Montana!

sarah said...

April,
I am sorry.. Ben is IN Montana. I was interupted and was not able to catch up on the latest posts. WOOOPS!

:)
Anyhoo, Happy Birthday Ben, from the otherside of the mountains (in Montana) :)