John and Sarah's two-person book club before they started dating
story · status: told 2× · last event: retold (2019-09-10)
Before they started dating, John and Sarah kept a two-person book club for about three months, and found they had both highlighted the same passage in Philip Roth's The Human Stain. John first told the story in 2018 and retold it in 2019 and 2024.
Told alongside: John takes the line 'Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia' from Sarah on their first date for Looking for Alaska (told 2016)
About: Sarah Urist Green, The Human Stain
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-10-16 | told | When John and Sarah first met they started a two-person book club and kept it up for about three months before they started dating, failing to notice they were in love. (playful) | Life's Library 00:00:27 |
| 2019-09-10 | retold | John tells how, before they dated, he and Sarah had a two-person book club; discussing Philip Roth's The Human Stain at her Chicago apartment, they found they'd highlighted the same passage. · also in: Getting Personal about Getting Personal | Another Contender in the Room 00:00:00 |
What is said about it
5 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2012-11-27 · Nerdfighter Book Recommendations: A Gift Giving Guide for Nerdfightastic Readers — John says no gift has lasted as long as books, showing Ship Breaker from Hank, The Human Stain from Sarah early in their dating, Microserfs from Dad (Christmas 1997) and Where the Red Fern Grows from Mom (age 10). — 00:03:24
- 2019-09-10 · Another Contender in the Room — Philip Roth (quoted): The passage both highlighted in The Human Stain: the pleasure is not in owning the person but in having another contender in the room with you. — 00:00:00
- 2019-09-10 · Another Contender in the Room — John says he always knew Sarah was smarter than him but has aimed to be a contender in the room with her; for 16 years they have read each other's writing and challenged each other's ideas. — 00:00:29
- 2019-09-10 · Another Contender in the Room — John says Sarah's thinking about art, love and how to make things has shaped his whole professional life so deeply that their work is impossible to disentangle. — 00:00:29
- 2019-09-10 · Another Contender in the Room — John recalls that on their first date Sarah said 'imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia', which he promptly put into Looking for Alaska and still thinks is the book's best line. — 00:00:29