Monday, July 18, 2011

Date a girl who reads

by Rosemarie Urquico

I stumbled upon this story and thought it was worth sharing.  Perhaps you've read it already, or perhaps not, anyway here goes.


"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.

(.... )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. (...) 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.

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. 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 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 Cortazar (edited by me) under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because 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."

4 comments:

  1. Recitas Cortazar??? Somos hermanas????
    No hay libro que me levante el ánimo con mayor rapidez que Historias de Cronopios y de Famas, libro que me haga emocionar como Rayuela ni poesía que me deje temblando como la de Salvo el Crepusculo. Era Borgiana hasta los 21 años, despues Cortazar me atrapó y me enamoré de él sin remedio.

    Conocía el texto pero me encantó releerlo. Siempre fui una rata de biblioteca y, de hecho, mi marido me regala libros para toda ocasión especial. Una orden de crédito de amazon me emociona más que una cartera jajaja

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  2. Gracias :) por lo de los zapatos ! Los vi y me encantaron !

    Yo tambien descubri a Cortazar a los 20 o 21 años. Y si, todavia releo Rayuela y siento algo en el estomago. Me encantan sus cuentos, como mezcla lo surrealista con lo cotidiano. Y si... me se algunas frases de memoria, una de mis favoritas es "Era duro renunciar a creer que una flor puede ser hermosa para la nada".

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  3. ¡Hola! Yo también he estado paseando por tu blog y me parece delicioso. Que sepas que ya te tengo bien guardadita en mi reader para revisar todo lo que escribas... no soy muy buena blogger últimamente, no escribo muy a menudo y casi nunca dejo comentarios en otros blogs, pero quiero que sepas que estoy aquí leyéndote :-) Por cierto, el blog que linkeas (:-S ¿existe esa palabra en español?) también lo tengo guardadito, ¡gracias por compartirlo! ¡Muacks!

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  4. @ Marona, gracias por visitar y por leerme, me alegro mucho que comentes. No se si linkear existe, pero se entiende. Supongo que el término es enlazar pero en estos tiempos modernos todo vale ! Me anoto tu blog :)

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