May 2013
1 post
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April 2013
4 posts
6 tags
8 tags
SIlverstein.
As a child, it is hard to understand the rarity of a truly happy ending. Because they are everywhere for us when we are six and seven. We don’t have to look very far to find one. We are, in a way, sheltered from the cold, cruel fact that happy endings are less likely than sad ones. The thought does not compute.
When my mother gave me “The Giving Tree,” I couldn’t contain my excitement. I...
Millman.
K was like this really hippie kind of girl that i used to hang out with, a little too tepid for my ‘wild’ attitude as a teen, so when she gave me this book to read , i was ready to pass. Although, since i thought of myself as an open minded person i began reading page after page, being drawn into its magnificent world only to find out that this book had changed my life. I had become the book and...
Where are we going, where have we been?
Spring Break. Laying low. That sort of thing. Now it’s time to revive. Send us your stories of books given and books received! Everyone wants to read them.
March 2013
1 post
11 tags
Montiel.
We grew up together; I watched you transform from a dopey kid with too long of hair into a still dopey man with short hair and confidence and a smile that could knock the air out of my lungs. You watched me, well, I took a little longer to change. I gave it to you after gym class junior year. I was sweaty and red faced and wanted the moment to be much more poetic and life changing than it was....
February 2013
6 posts
6 tags
Rivers.
Two years ago I was nursing a broken heart after being deceived by someone I truly cared about.
My friend gave me this book and suggested I read it because she thought I needed to hear the words in the book.
I read it in 12 hours straight the first time, and found hidden between the pages restored faith and healing. This book has made me believe in love and the power of God and quite...
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Green; Asher & Mackler.
My girlfriend, M, is as much of an avid reader as I am. However, she typically reads the newest, hottest thing when it comes to novels and whatnot. Her mother is the Assistant Librarian at the High School that M and I went to, so that kind of helped fuel her ability to know what was new and great and what was new and crappy. I, on the other had, typically stick to history books (typically...
8 tags
Be Mine.
It’s the perfect Valentine’s Day gift! Give your sweet-cheeks The Books They Gave Me. (Add a special inscription for maximum impact.) Available at your local bookstore, and at all of these places: Indiebound, Amazon, B&N, and iBooks.
Childcraft.
When I was a child, our school library always fascinated me. Every time I enter it, I feel excited because I knew I could read and discover new books again. My fondness for books and reading became greater when my older sister (who loves reading too) gave me my first ever hard bound book entitled “Life in Many Lands”—A Childcraft Book. I was so thrilled that I really took time to read each...
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Shepard.
It was our last morning together, or maybe our second to last. You never read, but we’d been talking about this book, talking about you being gay, and this you had read. It was new for you, being gay and being open, but you operated always as if you’d been there before.
You went out for coffee and brought it back as a surprise: The Meaning of Matthew. I read it cover to cover on the...
January 2013
9 posts
10 tags
Emerson.
We met in the drive-thru at starbucks. Me, on my way to a day long shift at a used bookstore ( more of a joy than a irritation to say the least) and him on the microphone taking my order for my daily dose of high priced caffeine. When I pulled up to the window it started with the usually barista small-talks.
“How’s your day?”,
“Fine, going to work.”
“Your...
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Gilman.
I have a favorite book - Caravan by Dorothy Gilman. I have several copies but one of these is special. It was given to me by my mom and read at the exact perfect time (and then read again and again and again). This one particular copy of Caravan comes with me when I travel - a symbol of adventure, and a reflection of the type of strength that I aspire to. It is falling apart, stained with mud...
6 tags
Hornbacher.
We had been confused as both sisters and lovers, we always were so close. My friendship with you felt something like home, a safe place where I could really be myself. And you returned that.
Then time went on and you found A. A and you were magnificent and dangerous together. You encouraged each others’ obsessive thoughts of thinness and starvation. I tried to drag you back, but the more I...
daniellego asked: Are you still giving out bookplates? This is really such a cool idea as I'm always giving books to people.
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Wurtzel.
Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women. It was ironic that she gave me this book.. She was beautiful, wild, and uncontrollable. I recognized this when I first started dating her, and never dared to attempt to set rules or boundaries for her. I was thankful for the book, but never quite found the time to read it. As it sat on my bookshelf collecting dust our relationship progressed; it became...
ruthlivingstone asked: Do the books have to be given by lovers? Or by other loved ones - parents, children, etc?
Anonymous asked: Where do we submit our stories?
Anonymous asked: When will you be mailing out the books for people who have been included ?
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Vonnegut.
In high school, when everyone else planned for college and attended parties (got wasted), I worked. I worked so that I could take some of the burden off my on-and-off again employed father. I woke up at six to go to school and I’d be back home by eight-thirty, with scarcely enough time each night to eat, do homework, and sleep. I planned on going full-time at my job, because dreams, as far...
December 2012
10 posts
6 tags
Matheson.
I met a man by complete and utter fluke at a ukulele bar (neither of us play). We decided upon a short fling (we were both moving away for work in December). It was a great decision - we had the most amazing two months of adventures and laughter and joy (that neither of us expected). On our last night together, we cracked some champagne to toast to our odd pseudo-relationship and he gave me a...
9 tags
Hergé.
Growing up, my brother and I were never close. He was always the baby, both of the family and of his classmates, and we had little in common. Even now, after we have started developing a relationship of sorts, we still have a hard time getting each other. So, when my brother announced that he already knew what he was going to get me for Christmas this year, I shrugged off the comment, assuming...
Anonymous asked: What's your favorite entry from the book?
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Morton.
Another new town. We had been moving since we got married, and on our 5th house or so, with two little ones in tow. But this was to be the final move, and I was excited. But lonely. So the school yard where my five year old was starting school was to be the venue where I would have to try and branch out and actually meet people, as much for my children’s sake as my own.
Meeting a mum of...
6 tags
Maguire.
My mother and I have never been close. Growing up I was extremely introverted and her short temper caused her to push me harder and harder to be the daughter she wished I was. I spent most of my time reading, cut off from everything else in my life. The more I did, the more angry she became, and the more angry she became, the more I shut myself off. It was a vicious cycle that lasted until I...
4 tags
The Books They Gave Me.
The perfect gift for everyone you know who loves books. Share this collection of nearly 200 stories of books given by lovers and loved ones for the most meta gift ever.
Inbox The Books They Gave Me with your email address for a special bookplate you can use to personalize the books you give this year!
Indiebound, Amazon, B&N, and iBooks
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Rowling.
She’s given me so many books that I can’t even begin to count them. She gave me my first book, and a multitude of books after that.
She read them to me, and when I was old enough to read them by myself, she helped me read the words I did not know.
But there was one book my mom gave me that changed my life. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling.
She brought it home...
7 tags
Buchan.
My father and I had a complicated relationship when I was little (although I guess that can be said of all fathers & sons). He was an outdoorsman, a carpenter and craftsman and engineer, while I was always wrapped up in worlds of my own imagination - music, books, games, etc. It’s not to say that we didn’t like the same things - he loved words and I always enjoyed being...
5 tags
Frisch.
We were new friends, and I was newly single. He invited me to go see Zardoz at BAM, and I thought it was a date until he got a phone call from a friend while we were buying snacks at the bodega, “Not much, you?… Yeah, we’re going to see Zardoz…. Sure, see you at the theater.” But before we went to meet up with our third wheel, he gave me a paperback copy of Homo Faber by Max Frisch, and I...
November 2012
28 posts
For you.
Just a quick note letting you know that all contributor copies of the book have been shipped to US addresses! The international ones will take a little longer, I’m sorry!
Anonymous asked: Will there be a follow up(or second) book to "The Books They Gave Me"?
6 tags
Astoria Tomorrow!
A mere six stops from Midtown on the N or Q! Please come out and join us!
Tuesday, November 27th, 7:00pm
Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden - 29-19 24th Avenue, Astoria, NY
Remember the time you thought you’d found “The One” only to be left questioning everything after he gave you a copy of The Fountainhead?
Or when your dad/best friend/roommate gave you a book that opened up a new world to...
4 tags
Murakami.
I got this book from my English teacher. He didn’t really give it to me, but he just let me borrow it because I pestered him for it. He then lent it to me and told me that as soon as I finished reading it I was to return it to him because it had sentimental value.
During the time he lent me the book, I had just come out of an unclean break-up and I didn’t know what I was in for when I got the...
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Miller.
When I was a sophomore in college my RA and friend gave me Blue Like Jazz to borrow. At the time I was in a really dark place in my life, feeling worthless, alone, just generally uncared for. He let me borrow the book and it quickly became one of my favorite books I had ever read. It’s a very strange sort of book, filled with memoirs and musings on being a Christian in a setting that was very...
7 tags
Tomorrow.
Join us and get schooled, tumblr-style.
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Tonight.
Hosted by Mediabistro’s GalleyCat Contributor Dianna Dilworth
Rsvp here.
Featured book club authors:
Jen Adams, The Books They Gave Me Toby Ball, Scorch City Caitlin Kelly, Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail Kitty Pilgrim, The Stolen Chalice
4 tags
Zusak. →
everythingissunny:
Lost, forgotten. pushed to the back dust gathering. waiting.
Opportunity a hand. freed from the back. out from the deep pages, a note falls out. A hand reaches. the book slumps. It’s heart broken.
The book glances at the note. trying not to be seen Dear Faith, Hope you like this book as much as I did. -your cousin.
A hand reaches for the book, and pulles it up To their...
3 tags
Tomorrow.
Join me tomorrow night for a reading as part of Mediabistro’s New York Book Club!
http://www.mediabistro.com/events/view_event.asp?id=19295
7 tags
Krauss.
I met Zoe maybe the last month before high school ended. She is one of those people you meet and you can just tell everything to; like a journal for adventures, but instead she could respond. We talked about music a lot, as probably many teenagers do or did, I can’t say for sure anymore. I had been reading Kerouac, and I think she asked me one day about him. I enjoyed him, but Kerouac...
2 tags
Contributors.
If you received an email from TBTGM letting you know that your story is included in the book and you have not sent in your address, please send it as soon as possible. We will be mailing contributor copies in about a week. If you are waiting for your contributor copy, it should be there soon!
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BreakThru Radio.
Fun interview! Today I’m talking about the blog and book with DJ Margaret on BreakThru Radio: http://www.breakthruradio.com/#/post/?blog=107&post=106.
