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Author Topic:   Date a girl who reads
teasel
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posted March 19, 2011 05:18 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for teasel     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I found this elsewhere:

"Date A Girl Who Reads by Rosemarie Urquico

(In Response to Charles Warnke’s You Should Date An Illiterate Girl.)

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 Twilightseries.

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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Randall
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From: The Goober Galaxy
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posted March 19, 2011 08:33 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

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"Never mentally imagine for another that which you would not want to experience for yourself, since the mental image you send out inevitably comes back to you." Rebecca Clark

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Ami Anne
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From: Pluto/house next to NickiG
Registered: Sep 2010

posted March 20, 2011 09:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ami Anne     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Love that Teasel

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Jesus never put his trust in man cuz he knew what was in man.
He who controls his Spirit is greater than he who controls a city
Proverbs

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Deux*Antares
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From: I am where I am and it's enough.
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posted March 21, 2011 01:07 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Deux*Antares     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Good read, Teasel.

But I don't like these parts:

quote:
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.


It's the formula for relationship drama. It romanticizes pain in relationships.

I understand what she is trying to say and I agree that relationships can never be devoid of discomfort and challenges, but I am uncomfortable with the exact words "Lie to her" and "Fail her".

I guess I just don't like reading about stuff that in any way promotes masochism, martyrdom, victimhood and "relationship addiction" (especially in women).

Growth doesn't always have to come thru suffering and struggle.

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GypseeWind
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From: Dayton,Ohio USA
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posted March 22, 2011 11:09 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for GypseeWind     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Love it. Hi TeaselB.

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Randall
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Posts: 7252
From: The Goober Galaxy
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posted March 24, 2011 01:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

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SunChild
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posted March 25, 2011 12:07 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for SunChild     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

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“It’s an interesting thing. Seeing Kuan Yin relating to a flower so intently. She's not just looking at it; she's interacting with it…I’m seeing how the act of relating to a flower appears to be so simple. Yet, it takes a tremendous amount of courage to make such a “simple” act important. Now, the lotus is floating away.”

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teasel
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posted March 26, 2011 07:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for teasel     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Deux*Antares:
Good read, Teasel.

But I don't like these parts:

It's the formula for relationship drama. It romanticizes pain in relationships.

I understand what she is trying to say and I agree that relationships can never be devoid of discomfort and challenges, but I am uncomfortable with the exact words "Lie to her" and "Fail her".

I guess I just don't like reading about stuff that in any way promotes masochism, martyrdom, victimhood and "relationship addiction" (especially in women).

Growth doesn't always have to come thru suffering and struggle.


I didn't like those parts either, for the same reasons.

Gypsee, I thought of you when with the last part: "Or better yet, date a girl who writes."

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GypseeWind
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From: Dayton,Ohio USA
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posted March 27, 2011 12:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for GypseeWind     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Only problem with dating a girl who writes is that eventually, you will inevitably turn up in said writing!

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Deux*Antares
Knowflake

Posts: 935
From: I am where I am and it's enough.
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posted March 28, 2011 02:41 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Deux*Antares     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Just finished reading "You Should Date An Illiterate Girl" and I think it's beautifully written.

I would like to read something like "Date A Girl Who's Into Astrology".

Anyone?

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Mystic Melody
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Registered: Dec 2010

posted March 28, 2011 02:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mystic Melody     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
yaaaay teasel <3 love this and ditto on the don't lie.

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Randall
Webmaster

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From: The Goober Galaxy
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posted April 01, 2011 01:51 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
*bump*

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Rogue Guru
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Registered: Jan 2011

posted April 01, 2011 07:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Rogue Guru     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Haven't even read the post yet -- the title was enough. I'd love to! Where is she?

=D

* Goes back to read the post...

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