The headline is true, folks - sorry - but all the same, this NY Times essay by Rachel Donadio from the Sunday Book Review is sweet enough, and at times amusing. The crux: "Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the Pushkin problem: when a missed — or misguided — literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast." Yes, the article is true. Say what you will about the death of books, they can still end a relationship between two smart, readerly people.
Sadly, booklovers-but-not-man-haters, it makes the point some us don't want to hear, even if we believe: “It’s really great if you find a guy that reads, period,” said Beverly West, an author of “Bibliotherapy: The Girl’s Guide to Books for Every Phase of Our Lives.” Augusten Burroughs, who has some talent as a writer but who I always dislike as a character in any of his books, makes a similar point: “Generally, if a guy had read a book in the last year, or ever, that was good enough.”
I beg to differ, Aug. I couldn't date a guy who read once in awhile. I don't know how I'd do with someone who read loads of sci-fi or fantasy - wait, I do know actually. And I know there'd be a serious problem so much as passingly chatting with someone like a friend's roommate, who had an Ann Coulter book on his shelf but always claimed, "I was just curious." Maybe I have high standards, but a guy I so much as sleep with has to read and read right.
Ugh - I feel the same as I do after listening and even enjoying a podcast of "Fresh Air." NY Times? NPR? I may as well buy a G-D PRIUS!!
Ultimately, I'm with John Waters: "If you go to someone's house after the bar, if they don't have books, don't sleep with them."
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