My best friend of three years, truly an incredibly intelligent, streetwise, funny, quick-witted, hot-tempered, kind, brave woman, a Gryffindor to the very core, has read a total of, like, six books in her entire twenty-four years of living.
That's one (1) book every four (4) years. Since I'm the kid who has books falling out my ears and the coat with deep pockets I bought specifically to keep multiple books on me while I commute, when I learned this I was like
(I'm also a Ravenclaw which I'm proud of but like fUCk I grew up wanting to be a Gryffindor and identifying with Gryffindor so I'm known to have a crisis every now and then)
And she just shrugged with this aggravating smirk and said
"I JuSt dON't LiKe REAdinG."
So for three years I've been trying to persuade her, I've given her books I thought she'd like as presents, I've recommended things, I've tried reading to her (and she fell asleep every single time) and reading the books our teacher gave her so we could talk about them. NoooOooooOOOOthing worked.
I'm aware that it's a bit selfish and manipulative, but I wouldn't have kept on if
1) she had told me to stop
2) she hadn't said she WANTED to read, she just couldn't focus long enough to finish a paragraph, much less an entire novel
3) I didn't truly believe she would like it if she found the right stuff.
Fast forward to us living together in the same bedroom (a huge step up from the same bed, in the summer, in NYC, with no air conditioning).
I found, if I was enthusiastic enough about something, she would hook on. I'm an infectious person what can I say.
I started rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the zillionth time. She watched with me. (We move slowly, we're mid-fifth season, about two years later.) And then she started sending me Buffy memes.
What a wonderful, beautiful realization. Simply fantastic. I could work with this. If she likes the movies, she would love the books. That's just fact.
So one day I walked into work with a brand new copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and I slammed it down in front of her.
"I'll buy you the entire series if you read them. When you finish this one, you'll get the next."
And she shrugged, and she picked up the book, and said in her animated chipmunk voice "Mmmokay."
And then I started getting Potter memes in my instagram inbox, and in-depth questions in my texts, and angry rants about how the movies entirely skipped important plot points (she's particularly furious about the first quarter of GoF) and did SO MANY characters dirty.
Fast forward - One year later
After hundreds of full, analytical discussions, after many Potter-thons, after meme binges, after five books, while I'm on an extended family leave (thanks Coronavirus), I get the text that she'd finally finished OotP (she'd taken a brief pause in her reading, and by brief I mean almost an entire year, which was torturous because it's My Favorite. Fucking. Book. And I wanted to share it with her.) and she wasn't sure if I'd gotten her HPB yet.
I told her that of course she could borrow my copy until I could come home and buy it for her.
And a day later the following exchange occurred over text:
A: I've started one of my other books while I wait for Half Blood Prince
T(is me): Ooh, which one?
T: Did you find my copy? Or was my room just a disaster
A: No I found it but I didn't want to risk something happening to it. No that j think anything would, but your books are everything to you. Especially HP. It be like I killed one of your children lol
A: It's a book adaptation of The Prom. I got it at a new broadway gift shop on my birthday :)
She was reading her own books.
What did it matter if it was a retelling of a Broadway show? THAT'S WHAT SHE LIKES. PEOPLE SHOULD READ THINGS THAT MAKE THEM HAPPY.
Not long after, to show my support and encourage progress and all, I sent this text:
T: Do you like your book?
And it was followed, my future Tumblr friends who may one day read this though as of right now I'm just writing it to be dramatic and express my immense pride and joy, by this string of texts:
(I had an inkling at this moment of what was happening)
(Yes, I was sure of it at this point, but...)
(I couldn't hold it any longer)
(I could hardly breathe for shaking)
T: I've been waiting for this moment all our friendship
A: (gag GIF, she likes the GIFs)
A: ITHINKIMIGHTLIKEREADING
Fireworks exploded. Choirs sang. Angels descended. World Peace was finally achieved. The hole in the ozone layer closed up. Magic exists and it is everywhere around us, my friends. It exists.
Not long after that, I received this from her fiancée:
And that, friends (or not), is the story of how Harry Potter and I turned my best friend into a reader.
