I’ve been on this website since early 2009 and there are certain people that I’ve followed since the very beginning, one of those being Casey (walkwhilereading). You follow every single post that someone releases for several years and you begin to find yourself getting to know them as if they were one of your friends. Though remaining complete strangers, people begin to offer advice and words of support and you genuinely care about the happenings that they post about, you begin to redefine the meaning of friendship.

Casey is remarkable, though he isn’t aware of the influence he has. The first characteristic you see is that he is a lover of books, not a mere admirer of them, or someone that picks up the latest novel on the bestseller shelf every few months. He does not read books to turn pages and then discuss their contents with an air of elitism. He devours books, he holds them in high regard, books are his religion and he worships daily, his bookcases are altars, his book reviews are confessions. He embodies the highest evolution of the reader, the type of reader that all writers hope to captivate with their words. When writers think about the ideal reader, they are thinking of people like Casey that treat words like gems and books like treasure chests.

From the years of following him, you begin to notice that he is a devoted husband and father to his daughters. And in a world of divorce and bad parenting, Casey is a reminder of the beauty of love and devotion that should be innate in each family. Through pictures you see key moments in his childrens’ life, how he speaks candidly about being a father while attempting to give them what he has always wanted. And all those posts and pictures and confessions should serve as a tomb for others to excavate, to understand the harsh realities and the rich beauty that is marriage and parenthood.

Though he doesn’t admit it, he is a talented writer. Casey writes honestly, he writes from a place within him that is filled with light and darkness, with the positivity and negativity that comes with being a human being. Reading his writings is peering into a soul, not just his soul but the soul of every man and woman in the world. When he writes of his depression, I can relate because I find myself struggling against that same monster that has always haunted me. I read those words and find comfort, yet pained that some of us have to suffer because we have a mind that becomes ill sometimes and all we want to do is escape it, to revel in the beauty and blessings we have. I am an advocate that he needs to sit down when the time becomes available and write with madness because the book that he will produce deserves to be published and widely read. Literature right now needs honest voices like his, needs writers that aren’t entangled in the web of literary achievements and egotism, writers that write because they love the written word and understand what it can do to the human soul.

Through the years Casey has been nothing but generous to me. He’s complimented my writings, giving me support and there is no doubt in my mind that a copy of my novel will be sent to Canada the second it is published, whenever that happens to be. He’s the reader that I am writing to, a writer that I admire and would like nothing more than to knock back a few beers while bantering about our favorite novels. And I know that I am not the only one that feels this way about Casey, about his little Tumblr that doesn’t reek of falsity, but reigns with an honesty that we all should attempt to amplify.

And finally, thank you for sending me this book and the postcard and the message that you wrote on the postcard. There is no gift more rewarding than a book given to you by someone that understands the importance of words and the pages they sleep on.

You guys! Look what this awesome man sent me!