courtesy of Norm, from the NY Times
Let’s face it — this may be a gender issue. Brainy women are probably more sensitive to literary deal breakers than are brainy men. (Rare is the guy who’d throw a pretty girl out of bed for revealing her imperfect taste in books.) After all, women read more, especially when it comes to fiction. “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.” Jessa Crispin, a blogger at the literary site Bookslut.com, agrees. “Most of my friends and men in my life are nonreaders,” she said, but “now that you mention it, if I went over to a man’s house and there were those books about life’s lessons learned from dogs, I would probably keep my clothes on.”
5 comments:
Bad reading material on a fellow's bookshelf is, for me, the equivalent of him wearing sneakers/trainers with trousers and a collarless shirt.
Fortunately, when I saw my future husband's car for the first time, I noted that he had two (well-read) Fitzgerald novels in the front seat. And they weren't props, either!
I'd rather have a non-reader than someone who reads horrible books. Preferring that your stories come from other sources (radio, TV) is a forgivable offense. Actively seeking out self-help books or vampire romance novels (yes, I've encountered them) is a sure way to convince me to leave my pants on!
I try to refrain from judging other people's taste in books, though I often catch myself in mid-sneer when friends profess to adore chick lit, self-help books or airport thrillers. I would rather have more people read than have bookstores, even the chains, go out of business.
But reading is a huge part of my life and there's nothing I like better than browsing whole afternoons away in bookstores, so I can't imagine being with somebody to whom reading is anathema. I have my own literary prejudices, and being with someone who likes books/authors I find abhorrent may challenge those prejudices and even expand my reading horizons.
Wow - this is a subject that I think is more complex than what level of literature the guy is reading. What if all he reads is Bruce Caton Civil War stuff? That's a marriage that is doomed to spending every non-winter weekend at re-enactments and specializing in "social dances of Old Virginia". On the other hand, any reading over the level of Clifford the Big Red Dog is better than a guy who spends all of his waking moments playing video games.
I have met people who read books that I may not appreciate (like thrillers, self-help) but I also see people who read "It" books just to make an impression. I dont know which is worse.
I used to get impressed by a person's bookshelf earlier but I have been mis-led more than once. Although for me it has happened more with my female friends. Somehow women seem to have a higher need to appear smarter and they use books as props more often than men do, in my experience.
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