A visit to the dentist always entails a certain amount of anxiety. Will the sins of my mouth have caught up with me? Are my sleepy nights’ brushings thorough enough? Is that spot where I declined to have a false molar replace the missing one causing any problems for the teeth above? That kind of thing. In any case, I like our dentist. The town we live in, which is small, has four dentist offices. The one I selected is run by three women and instead of always getting the same mouth doctor, on a standard visit you meet with the one who has an opening in her schedule. I like to support women-owned businesses. But still, the anxiousness. Something happened on my last visit that may help. I’ll try to remember it.
Unlike anyone else I’ve ever seen, I always take a book with me for those minutes in the waiting room. I have so much that I want to read and so little time, so as long as I’m cashing in a sick day, I might as well get some extra reading done. Since it’s summer, I didn’t have a coat in which to leave my book, so I took it back to the room with me. They’ve never said anything about me taking up a little of their medical counter with a book, so I figured it was okay. The hygienist did the x-rays and cleaning, then the dentist stopped in. I had never seen this particular doctor before, and she began the conversation by asking what the book was about. Now, as strange as it may sound, I have wondered why nobody ever asks about the book I inevitably have. I take books to every medical appointment—I’m not a magazine reader—and in all these years no one has asked me. Until now.
This wasn’t just a polite query either. She asked whether I thought it was good, and even suggested some similar things I might want to read. It was, in fact, a literary conversation. As I walked home (teeth are fine) I pondered how rare this is. I’ve told people that I write books and the conversation usually dies when I say what they’re about. Of course, I don’t go around reading copies of my own books. I already know what they say. I guess I miss a literate society where people discuss the books they read. I do it on this blog, and on Goodreads, but engagement is low. At least next time I won’t be afraid to go to the dentist.