Date a girl who reads.

"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 book she wants to read and who has a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You'll know that she does becasue 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 books 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, specially  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 mights 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 of if 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 songs... 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 make her life a little like her favourite 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 leeds up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to an 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? Girl who reads understand that people, like characters develop. Except in Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you fin her up at 2 am clutching her book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of coffee and hold her, You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She will talk as if the characters in the book are real because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air ballon or during a rock concert. Or very casually the next time she's sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard, you will wonder why your heart has not burst and bled out over your chest yer. You will write the story of our lives, have kids with strange names and even strange tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Asian, 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 colourful 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..."