“ Date a girl who r e a d s
Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes
who 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 has found the book she wants
You see that weird chick
sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop?
That’s the reader
They can never resist smelling the pages
especially when they are yellow and worn
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 e n g r o s s e d 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 i n t e r r u p t e d
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, for anniversaries
Give her the gift of words
in poetry and 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 s y n t a x
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 c l i m a x
Because girls who read understand that
all things must come to end
but that you can always write a s e q u e l
that you can begin again and again
and still be the hero
that l i f e 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, d e v e l o p
Except in the Twilight series
If you find a girl who reads
keep her close
When you find her up at 2am
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 a l w a y s are
You will propose on a hot air balloon
Or during a rock concert
Or very c a s u a l l y next time she’s sick
Over Skype
You will s m i l e so hard
you will wonder
why your heart hasn’t b u r s t
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 d e s e r v e it
You deserve a girl
who can give you the most c o l o r f u l life imaginable
If you can only give her m o n o t o n y
and stale hours and half-baked proposals
then you’re better off alone
If you want the world
and the worlds b e y o n d it
date a girl who reads.
Or better yet
date a girl who w r i t e s . ”
― Rosemarie Urquico
