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Dear Reader,
I'm on vacation this week and some of my friends have graciously offered to fill in for me while I'm gone. Today's column is written by my good friend and author Thomas Sullivan (Sully).
A couple of months back, I wrote a column about the kind of person who makes you feel so comfortable that if you had to call them up at 3 a.m. and ask for their help, you know they wouldn't give you the third degree. They'd just hop out of bed and inquire, "Where should I meet you and tell me what I can do to help."
We haven't met in person, and I admit I've never had the need to ring Sully in the wee hours of the morning. But it's nice to know that without a doubt, he's one of my 3 a.m. friends.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
http://www.DearReader.com
Today's guest columnist, Thomas Sullivan...
The trouble with pinch-hitting for Suzanne is that I won't get 'my' daily boost from one of her uplifting columns. Maybe uplifting doesn't quite cover it. You come here looking for new books, but inevitably you find a glimpse of yourself or some centering philosophical tidbit that gets the day rolling. Book sampling is terrific, but I don't know any reader at this site who isn't hooked on the columns. And I know a lot of Suzanne's readers. When my novel Second Soul was featured last fall, the email came pouring in. It was easy to see how loyal and deeply personal a following she has.
The columns stand on merit, but I think some of the reason people relate to Suzanne is simply because fundamentally she is a book person. To give or promote reading is to give wisdom, joy and passion. That came home to me, when I was teaching reading a couple of decades ago, through a student I'll call Allen.
Years behind grade level, intimidating in size, Allen was used to being shunted to the back of the room for another semester of quiet failure. He lacked skills and confidence but there was common sense locked up inside him, and I made it a point to draw it out. Had to fake it a bit, putting words in his mouth, reinterpreting whatever I could coax out of him, but soon the students began to respect him and then he began to respect himself. It seemed like at least a minor victory, something to get him through the class.
I didn't know how much he had grown or how hungry he was to enter the magical world of books until the next fall when he stopped by my room. He had a list of some 200 words he had looked up in the dictionary---words from my first novel, which was no easy read. I was so choked up; I could barely speak to him.
Here was this high school kid who had never finished a book before, freed at last to summer's diversions, and he had taken this upon himself. I tell you, you never know what you give someone when you facilitate their journey into reading.
Allen went on to become an avid reader with access to realms he might never have otherwise known. At another level, this is what Suzanne does for countless readers on their journey. Facilitates. Enables. A third of a million people who visit this site know that and are grateful.
Nice to meet you in this sanctuary. Feel free to email me at mn333mn@earthlink.net or visit my official author web site at: http://www.thomassullivanauthor.com/
I'll also be sending out free copies of one of my books to five readers picked at random over the next month who mention that they read at Suzanne's book clubs, so include your address if you would like a chance at that. My next novel, The Water Wolf, is due out from NAL's Onyx imprint in paperback October 3, 2006.
--Sully (Thomas Sullivan)
mn333mn@earthlink.net
READ THE CLASSICS: The Recognitions, by William Gaddis, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=20
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