[Perry] "Read This"

Gather round children.

It’s time for a story.

Goody-goody gosh, right?

A while back, a good friend of mine, Matthew, called me out for a cup of coffee with a story.

So Matt was standing in the bookstore, calling me for book recommendations. When he got off the phone with me, a man that had been eavesdropping on his side of the conversation began to talk to him.

Now this guy, according to Matt, was…a big guy.

Okay, that’s not quite accurate.

According to Matt, this guy could have been the “man with no life” from South Park’s World of Warcraft episode.

Anyway, this guy took it upon himself to preach the word, telling Matt about this amazing novel that he just had to read…except he couldn’t find it on the shelves.

Being the nice guy, Matt told the man that he’d keep an eye out for the novel and left as soon as he could get away.

Picking up a couple new books, Matthew sat down at the Starbucks in the store to peruse his new purchases. He’d been there for just a few minutes when a book came flying out of nowhere, landing in his lap.

Looking up with a, “What the fuck?” he saw the fat man from earlier who just pointed a big, fat finger in his face and said two words.

“Read this.”

And then the fat man walked away, never to be heard from again.

Matt looked at the book that a complete stranger had just dumped onto him and thought to himself, “Of all the nerve…” but then figured, he couldn’t just ignore a move as ballsy as that.

So Matt bought the book.

A week later, he called me out for a cup of coffee.

Once Matt was done telling me his story, he stood up, dropped a thick novel into my lap and stuck a finger in my face.

“Read this.”

Then he walked away.

At first, just like him, all I could think was, “Cheeky bastard…”

But after a move like that, what was I to do?

I took the book home with me to read.

Two days later, when I finished the book, I knew there was only one thing I could do.

I called up another friend of mine out for coffee with a copy of the book, ready to drop into her lap.

That book was The Name of the Wind.

You’ve had them too, haven’t you?

Sure you have. Books that were so damned good that you just wanted to shove them into someone’s hands and stand over them to make sure they actually read it?

What’re some of your “read this” books?

Related posts:

[Perry] Judging a Book by its Cover
[Perry] Using An Unreliable Narrator