you are more likely to pick up if you have a book in your hand
December 20th 2006 03:09
In a New York Times Review article, Books Make You a Boring Person, Cristina Nehring said bookworms are the most self-congratulatory bunch, but are really nothing special: “you can learn anything from a book - or nothing. You can learn to be a suicide bomber, a religious fanatic or, indeed, a Bush supporter as easily as you can learn to be tolerant, peace-loving and wise. You can acquire unrealistic expectations of love as readily as, probably more readily than, realistic ones ... Most disturbing, you can train yourself to be nothing at all; you can float forever like driftwood on the current of text; you can be as passive as a person in an all-day movie theatre, as antisocial as a kid holed up with a video game, and at the same time more conceited than both.”
But according to Penguin UK, books do make you more interesting and they increase your chances of romantic interest. In a controversial promotion encouraging more reading in young males - who are proven to read less than their female counterparts - the publishing house said “What women really want is a man with a Penguin. You may not even need to read it, just bend the covers, let it stick out of your pocket and the book will do the talking!” (www.goodbooking.com). According to a survey commissioned by them, eight out of ten people polled said they believe readers “are likely to be much better in bed.”
Bookshops and libraries have long been considered good places to find love in the air, and recently “literary speed dating” has taken an already bizarre form of finding a partner, to a new level. At the State Library of Victoria twenty registered singles meet, all with a book they want to discuss, and spend 5 minutes with each person. At the end they select whether they want to pursue anyone and if there are matches, personal details are exchanged.
I wonder if it works. Is it a good idea to start a romance based on the other person’s literary preferences? Do our responses to books reveal much about who we are or what we want? Does being a reader really make you more desirable? Can books better us?
Quote of the day:
“Master books, but do not let them master you. - Read to live, not live to read.”
(Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1831-1891)
But according to Penguin UK, books do make you more interesting and they increase your chances of romantic interest. In a controversial promotion encouraging more reading in young males - who are proven to read less than their female counterparts - the publishing house said “What women really want is a man with a Penguin. You may not even need to read it, just bend the covers, let it stick out of your pocket and the book will do the talking!” (www.goodbooking.com). According to a survey commissioned by them, eight out of ten people polled said they believe readers “are likely to be much better in bed.”
Bookshops and libraries have long been considered good places to find love in the air, and recently “literary speed dating” has taken an already bizarre form of finding a partner, to a new level. At the State Library of Victoria twenty registered singles meet, all with a book they want to discuss, and spend 5 minutes with each person. At the end they select whether they want to pursue anyone and if there are matches, personal details are exchanged.
I wonder if it works. Is it a good idea to start a romance based on the other person’s literary preferences? Do our responses to books reveal much about who we are or what we want? Does being a reader really make you more desirable? Can books better us?
Quote of the day:
“Master books, but do not let them master you. - Read to live, not live to read.”
(Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1831-1891)
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Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog