We met on the first day of 7th grade, and truthfully, our friendship hasn’t changed much.

We bonded quickly over the important stuff, like music—we both loved Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, the Beatles, and Billy Joel. We still do. We laughed at the same things, and we thought we were pretty funny. We still do. We both adored the old Austin Public Library. We were nerdy reader girls. We were obsessed with books. Still all true.

Like any YA reader of the 80s, we got our history, world knowledge, and sex ed from bestsellers like Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear, Jeffrey Archer’s Kane and Abel, Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, and Alex Haley’s Roots. Nabbed from Bremond’s mom and dropped while being surreptitiously read in the tub, these crinkled offerings would be passed from Bremond to Lisa, who reciprocated with contraband swiped from her dad’s vast library on the back of the toilet. With equal gusto, we swept through the classics—Austen, L.M. Montgomery, Hurston, Shakespeare, Orwell, Hemingway, Fitzgerald. And then, "Did you read it?" "Did you like it?" "Oh my gosh, the part where he…?" "I know!!!"

We quite literally would and did read anything and talked about everything.

We still do. And while our tastes can be wildly different, we trust each other; Bremond’s reading list is gospel for Lisa, and Lisa’s recommendations push Bremond outside her usual territory. Besides, we can always count on the conversation that follows to be good, even if the book isn’t.

Fast forward forty years, five children, other careers, and countless books read and forgotten later, we founded Quite Literally Books. QLB is a home for readers who know books are great company and relish spending an afternoon in libraries and bookstores with the kindred spirits to be found there.

For us, good books are lifelong companions, just like we are. Our Story has a new chapter, and we’re so excited to write it together as Quite Literally Books!

—Bremond & Lisa