An excerpt from Sherman Alexie’s latest, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which by the way, is fabulous. It had me sobbing and laughing and cheering, all at once. Kids, recommend this to your folks. It won a really important prize.
“You read a book for the story, for each of its words,” Gordy said, “[...] And, yeah, you need to take that seriously, but you should also read and draw because really good books and cartoons give you a boner.”
I was shocked. “I don’t think you’re supposed to get that excited about books. What’s your point?”
“The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know.”
Wow. That was a huge idea. Any town, even one as small as Reardan, was a place of mystery. And that meant that Willpinit, that smaller, Indian town, was also a place of mystery.
“Okay, so it’s like each of these books is a mystery. Every book is a mystery. And if you read all the books ever written, it’s like you’ve read one giant mystery. And no matter how much you learn, you just keep on learning there is so much more you need to learn.”
“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” Gordy said. “Now doesn’t that give you a boner?”
“I am rock hard,” I said.
Gordy blushed.
“Well, I don’t mean boner in the sexual sense,” Gordy said. “I don’t think you should run through life with a real erect penis. But you should approach each book - you should approach life - with the real possibility that you might get a metaphorical boner at any point.”
“A metaphorical boner!” I shouted. “What the heck is a metaphorical boner?”
Gordy laughed.
“When I say boner, I really mean joy,” he said. “But ‘boner’ is funnier. And more joyful.”
