Birthday Wishes for a Great Reading Friend

My friend B. has a "big" birthday today -- Happy, happy birthday, dear B.! On 2/16/10, I wrote about my friend C., with whom I have been having book conversations for the longest. B. is a friend I have been discussing books with for almost as long: 35 years! B's and my typical get-together is a long lunch or afternoon tea, at which we discuss many things, always including books: what books we are currently reading, what we think about them, what we saw reviewed in The New York Times or The San Francisco Chronicle or elsewhere, which books other friends have recommended, which favorite novels we have returned to (yet again!), which books have been made into movies, whether the movies did justice to the books, and more. We often give or lend each other books, feeling happy when one has found "the perfect book" for the other. Our mutual love of literature is deeply woven into our long and close friendship. Again, dear B., have a wonderful birthday and a wonderful year!