Bookish Friends

How sharing stories gives us our greatest gifts, our people.

by Melissa Woodruff

Some of my favorite friends are the friends I met through stories. Let me clarify, because as readers, I know most of you are thinking Anne, Mr. Tumnus, The March Sisters, Harry Potter, or any of a million characters from the stories we have read that have in turn, built us through the years. Yes, the characters in stories have an enormous impact on who we are. Fall holds a certain whimsy for many of us because Anne reminded us to be thankful that we live in a world with Octobers. We have desires in our hearts to open mysterious wardrobes because a new friend may just be a few steps beyond the door of that wardrobe.

But in this instance, I am talking about real life, sit around the fireplace and drink tea with me, human beings. There is a beautiful thing that happens when you meet another soul who loves good stories. Those who read them, or write them, and especially those who love talking about them, can change the direction of your day or sometimes even your life.

Recently, I was at a writing critique group, and we started chatting about some of the beloved stories we had in common. I mentioned that I had been stuck on Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery for months, struggling to buckle down and finish it. I had finished at least four other books in the time I had been trying to finish this one. I am a great lover of the Anne series as a whole but for some reason, could not push myself to wrap it up. 

When I mentioned this grave fact, my dear kindred spirit Carrie legitimately exclaimed, (if you know our Carrie Givens you know that she does indeed exclaim when she gets going about good stories) “Oh, you have to finish it! The ending leads into things that are coming in the next book and it is just lovely!” She proceeded to roll off the next few books in the series and explain their value (or lack thereof) to the rest of the grand story.  

Her excitement about the book itself and especially the series as a whole, got me so excited about finishing House of Dreams and moving on to the next book. So I went home, and plugged away at it until I finished. And she was right. It was a lovely book with a lovely ending. I’m not sure if I would have ever finished the book without her grand exclamation, love, and passion for the story.

What’s more, I would have had no idea that Anne had an entire series if not for my best friend Lyndsi. I read Anne of Green Gables for the first time when I was in middle school. I fell in love with her and her story immediately. And then I moved on. I had no idea that there was an entire series past that introductory novel until the rest were shared with me. Not only that series, but the Emily of New Moon series, which this same BFF gifted me for my birthday a couple of years ago, as well as The Blue Castle, which I am currently reading. All of these stories would have been lost to me without this beautiful friend who has shared her love for these stories.

A few weeks back I talked on this very newsletter about the influence Rachel Donahue has had on my journey into loving poetry and now getting to pass that love on to my kids. Others—mostly educators—have tried to inspire me to read and explore all different types of poetry, but Rachel was the one who made it all feel like an actual option. Even an appealing option!

So what is my point here? Having friends whom I have bonded with over stories and storytelling makes me trust them about just about anything story-related and also opens my world up to even more stories. And don’t we all have these bookish friends? The ones we trust implicitly to put a story in our hands and know that, more than likely, it will feed our minds and fill our souls.

The entire reason I am sitting here at all, writing this little diddy, is because at a homeschool conference a year ago, I found some of my favorite bookish soulmates and ended up chatting with them about books for far more time than I shall admit to here and now. Since then, I have spent countless hours engaging in more and more of those conversations with these lovely humans who founded Bandersnatch Books. 

But these are not my only dear bookish friends. Think back to the first story you ever fell in love with. The story that opened the floodgates to all the other stories that now make up your love for storytelling. Most of us can name the book, without question. Others of us can name a few. Now, I bet without much more thought, you can remember the person who shared that gateway story (or stories) with you. I would even guess that in many circumstances you can remember at least some of the conversation that led to them sharing it with you. 

For me, it’s a repetition of the same conversation with the same person over and over in my childhood: my mom. She was my very first bookish friend. She put so many books in my hands and is almost solely responsible for my love of books and stories. As long as I can remember, she has supported my bookish addictions, even as an adult.

On some level, these conversations became foundational to our relationships and also to the way we proceeded to approach stories. It helped define what we love and why we love it and set expectations for stories we wanted to seek out, find, and then share. Because one thing we bookish friends do, once we love something, we immediately think of someone else who would love that story. 

Isn’t it amazing, the identity that stories can give us as individuals but also to our relationships? Or maybe more to the point, isn’t it amazing the relationships that sharing good stories can give us? We are created and built by God to be social and emotional humans. Stories and the sharing of those stories can give us both. 

It’s been happening since the beginning of time. Our first Bible stories were shared by people, through other people, to new people. To think of the early church and how the gospel was spread by storytelling makes me feel like part of that process. As a book lover and a storyteller, I get to play a role in sharing that story and also gain deeper relationships with other lovers of stories overall, but specifically THE Story. Today, we are invited into sharing stories that are often found off the beaten path but that point people to all the things that are good, true, and beautiful, alongside others who love and value all of those same things. We don’t walk that path alone.

We are given so many gifts through stories. But, for me, my relationships with others has to be the best. So thank you for being my bookish friends. For sharing your stories, and reading mine. I can’t wait to see what stories we share next.

August 31–September 2: Bandersnatch Books booth at Matthews Alive Festival.
September 10: Red Rex release (preorders are open!)
September 20–21: Bandersnatch Books at the Embodied Faith Symposium at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Charlotte.
November: Above, Not Up release (preorders open in September)

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Are you in the Charlotte area? If so, we're headed back to the @matthewsalivenc Festival in Matthews, North Carolina this Labor Day weekend (Aug. 30–Sept. 2)!

Come find books in the Small Shops area (just across from the Fire Station) and have a blast with all the other fun activities, too!

If you’re not in the Charlotte area, then follow Bandersnatch Books on LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook!

“Be as careful of the books you read as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.”

— Edwin Paxton Hood