Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Dash is walking through the Strand bookstore a few days before Christmas when he sees a red Molskine notebook hidden among the novels. In it are clues from a girl named Lily leading him to other books in the bookstore and eventually a request for his email address if he wants to continue with the game. Dash is more than willing to get to know the mysterious Lily, but he sends her on a search of her own. As both are parentless for the holidays, Dash by choice and Lily by grudging consent, they have the time and freedom to continue their chain of dares. Will they ever meet face-to-face? Will they like each other as much off paper as they do within the notebook?

This book is written from both Dash's and Lily's points-of-view, David Levithan writing Dash's and Rachel Cohn writing Lily's. Dash is smart, in his word, "bookish." My teenaged self would have admired him from a distance, too intimidated to do anything so bold as talk to him. One of my favorite things about Dash is that he dreams of owning the complete, hardcover, 20-volume OED. So do I, Dash, so do I! Lily is loveable and awkward, and she makes absolutely delicious cookies. I liked both characters and was worried about what would happen if they met. Something that Dash says about meaning describes his and Lily's situation.

...I don't think meaning is something that can be explained. You have to understand it on your own. It's like when you're starting to read. First, you learn the letters. Then, once you know what sounds the letters make, you use them to sound out words. You know that c-a-t leads to cat and d-o-g leads to dog. But then you have to make that extra leap, to understand that the word, the sound, the "cat" is connected to an actual cat, and that "dog" is connected to an actual dog. It's that leap, that understanding, that leads to meaning....
...in the same way that a kid can realize what "c-a-t" means, I think we can find the truths that live behind our words.

Dash and Lily are reading and liking each other on the pages of the red Molskine, but they might be making leaps to false actualities. Will they be happy when they discover "the truths that live behind [their] words"? Here are some of their words that I liked.

My hands were starting to shake a little. Because I hadn't known that I knew these things. Just having a notebook to write them in, and having someone to write them to, made them all rise to the surface.
* * * * * * *
The Strand proudly proclaims itself as home to eighteen miles of books. I have no idea how this is calculated....Were there eighteen miles of shelves? No one knew. We all just took the bookstore at its word, because if you couldn't trust a bookstore, what could you trust?
* * * * * * *
She led me into a room that could only be called a parlor. The drapery was so thick and the furniture so cloaked that I half expected to find Sherlock Holmes thumb-wrestling with Jane Austen in the corner.
* * * * * * *
I am not dangerous. Only the stories are dangerous. Only the fictions we create, especially when they become expectations.

Hmmm. I think these are all Dash quotes. I can't help it. I really like him!

Although this book is mostly about Dash and Lily, it is also a little about the Strand. This whole book is a little tribute to New York City. I've been to the Strand, and it is wonderful.