Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Book Club for the Homeless

Every Tuesday morning, a group of homeless men meet at a church in Boston to discuss literature. As reported in the Boston Globe, the story of the club’s origin reads like a fairy tale, but it’s all the more touching because it’s true:

The story of the book club, now in its 10th month, is a tale of ordinary city life upended. It began with a stunningly unlikely friendship, between two men from different worlds: Peter Resnik, a high-powered lawyer on his way to work, and Rob, a homeless man guarding a friend’s shopping cart on Boston Common. Through months of daily conversations, that began with jokes and sports talk and gradually delved deeper, they found a common interest: literature. And when they saw the bridge that they had built, they recognized its potential for others.
Read the full article if you have the time. It reaffirms the status of literature as a basic human need.

4 comments:

Zibilee said...

I find this amazing and inspiring. It is so heartwarming to hear that people in all stations of life are coming together to bond over their love of literature. Thanks for posting this, it made my day.

Lisa said...

This is incredible. It must feel wonderful to these homeless men to have this social connection and an ability to use their brains for something beyond survival.

Robert Nagle said...

You may find this interesting. I met a homeless poet in Austin a month or two ago. We talked about various things; he had a psychiatric disorder but was basically stable. I immediately thought of two books he would like: Travels with Lisbeth and Book of Luminous Things .

I'm actually going to meet him in about a week or two to help him self-publish his poetry.

Donura said...

What an inspiring article. It is always the smaller gestures that turn into something larger in the end. Thanks for directing more of us to the article than might otherwise have seen it.