They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

Current mood: liked

So, this really great thing has been happening and I don't quite know what to think.

It all started when Amber lent me some of her books (Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Series and MaryJanice Davidson's hilarious Undead novels). I read them voraciously and, as I finished each one, passed them on to my mom so she could read them before I returned them all.

Then Erika lent me some of her books (Janet Evanovich, Dan Brown, and Donna Kauffman), and I'm still working on those.

Looking back, I must have mentioned this "book lending" concept to my students at one point or another. Little did I know how much the idea would take hold!

One Friday, when a student did a presentation on a book called The A-List, it sounded so great that I expressed interest in reading it. "Oh, I'll lend it to you," the girl replied. If you've been reading my blogs regularly, you know that I love, love, loved that book and plan to read the entire series.

Well, when I told the student how much I loved the book and thanked her for lending it to me, I didn't realize the untapped opportunity that I had been unaware of for the last dozen or so years that I've been teaching.

One of my male students piped up, "Have you seen City of God?" When I responded that I hadn't, he said, "Oh, I'll lend it to you." Chuy and I watched the movie that night and were both blown away by it (and not a little depressed!). When I returned the DVD to the student, he asked, "What did you think of it?" and we had a little impromptu chat about the fact that it was a true story, etc.

Later, another student found out I had read Dave Pelzer's A Child Called It and The Lost Boy, but not A Man Named Dave (the third installment in the series). "Oh, I'll lend it to you," she offered.

Then another girl told me that Between Worlds, the book she was reading was written by local authors Pershing and Delshad, and she knew them personally, etc. When I expressed interest in having them come and speak to the class but wanted to read the book first, she said, "Oh, I'll lend it to you."

Then, the other day, yet another student offered up his copy of Malibu's Most Wanted for my viewing pleasure.

Then another girl lent me the book she just finished reading called White is for Magic. And the boy who lent me City of God offered to let me borrow Ray, the Ray Charles biopic.
What gives? When I was marveling to my mom about this phenomenon, she said, "They like you. They really, really like you." Bad Sally Field impression aside, I think maybe she's right. And I feel the same about them.