8 Things 'Friends' Taught Us About Reading

Since its debut in 1994, no one has stopped talking about (or watching)Friends — despite that a decade has passed since its final season aired.Talk about staying power. In 10 years with the sitcom, we saw Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe experience and learn all kinds of stuff — and some of the lessons they learned were from book readin’.

One thing Friends-devotees love most about the show is, although at times the characters were ridiculously un-relatable... they were really relatable (stay with me here). They had favorite books, they read magazines, and they got tons of catalogs in the mail. They were affected by things they read, be it the jokes in Playboy or a book about embracing your womanhood Miss Chanandler Bong even got TV Guide (back when that was a thing). Phoebe took a literature class and read a couple classics to make up for her lack of high school experience. We can assume Ross did a ton of reading, because, well, Ross. Rachel always seemed to have at least a catalog or magazine in hand, and Joey, oddly, probably read the most out of all of them. We know Monica sometimes fell asleep while reading on the couch.

OK, thinking back, I don’t know how much learning they got out of reading. But they certainly taught us a few things along the way:

If a book is really scary (or sad), put it in the freezer

Whether it's The Shining or Little Women , books can stick with us, even if we've put them on the coffee table and have moved on to eating pizza, looking at a catalog, or playing foosball. But somehow, if the book is held at freezing point, behind a closed door — you're going to be OK. It's not as scary or sad.

Only one volume of the Encyclopedia isn't enough

Learn all you want about Volcanic Ash, the Vietnam War, or Vas Deferens, but if someone brings up North Korea, you're screwed.

A dramatic reading of Love You Foreveris a lovely first birthday gift. A dramatic reading about postpartum depression is not

The baby may not understand exactly what is happening (especially if she is still napping) but reading aloud does have a positive effect on early literacy skills — so, well done, Joey. Well done.

It's hard to BS your way through a discussion of Jane Eyre . Related: There are no robots in Jane Eyre.

Do your homework. Some people were lucky enough to have gone to high school, while others grew up on the street. That person may really want to learn.

The library is not just for reading. It is for using the bathroom, picking up chicks, and goin' at it the nonfiction section (you know, where the boring books are)

Be careful, though — it is possible someone you meet in a local library may like reading for fun. That can be a buzzkill.

It's OK to read a Dirty Book.

Every woman has the right to a little erotica. Even if we're still not sure what a vicar is.

It is possible to accidentally read a magazine.

Sometimes you mean to read Wuthering Heights, but you read Vogue instead. It happens to the best of us.

Chicken Soup for the Soul might not make you cry, but that doesn't mean you have no soul.

Books can be helpful if you need a good cry, but not everyone gets emotional about the same things. If you don't get weepy over what people expect you should, it's fine. Just give something else a try. Maybe, instead of reading, watch Ross and Rachel in The Last One. (She gets off the plane).

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