Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books
instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because
she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she
wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will
always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly
looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly
cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird
chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book
shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the
pages, especially when they are yellow.
She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the
street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is
floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in
a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a
glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask
her if she likes the book.
Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got
through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she
says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that
to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would
like to be Alice.
It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her
birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift
of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton,
Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love.
Understand that she knows the difference between books and
reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little
like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.
Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your
need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value,
nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.
Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always
leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all
things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That
you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is
meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read
understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the
Twilight series.
If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her
up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a
cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours
but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the
characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always
are.
You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert.
Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.
You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn't
burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the
story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even
stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in
the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the
winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under
her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl
who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can
only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals,
then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the
worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.
Or better yet, date a girl who writes.
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