Is a book dead or alive? Can one be friends with a book or with the author behind the book? What are the promises and hazards of such friendships? Should we seek stability, loyalty, and reassurance of our deepest convictions and impulses? Or do real friends provide conflict, mystery, and depth, challenging and surprising us continually with new insights and contradictions? What if a friendship isn’t dyadic in nature but triadic, requiring a third element to complete it—such as fine wine or a shared spiritual yearning?

Are some friends more suited to lifelong friendship than others and, if so, why? In this episode, Annapolis tutor Mary Elizabeth Halper and host Zena Hitz explore the very personal relationships that humans have with books, and with the complex questions they bring up in all of us.