Letters to the Editor
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AKA Smith
Don't advertise your ignore list! Doesn't that defeat the purpose?
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@ Elusis
Think that's bad? Borders Books actually sells a how-to book entitled "The Clitoral Kiss".
No, I myself did not read it...but I did look at the illustrations while killing time in their cafe. =)
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@ FemmeJr
I list it on occasion because the same idiot's keep posting to me. Even idiots should, in all fairness, be told when they are going to be ignored so that they don't write unnecessarily.
Of course not everyone on my ignore list is an idiot. Some are just fanatical Hillary Haters or are calculating -- like this one guy who kept saying "Do the math!" over and over again. Some people don't realize that in certain circumstances not only superdelegates but also other delegates can actually switch their votes. Superdelegates may switch their votes as many times as they choose between now and Denver.
Most people on the list are there because of sexism.
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So glad I'm not alone!
Ayn Rand's been a deal-breaker for me for years.
I will say, though, how much this issue matters is dependent on how passionate you are about books. If you read them just for a great yarn (which is totally reasonable), you're probably less likely to be freaked out by someone's bookshelf in the first place. If you're like me, and books are a really important way of learning about the world, a key way of relating to it and the people in it, then you're going to look at a bookshelf as the Rosetta Stone of another person's being.
Like many here, I sigh at how few men truly read at all. My ex-husband did, voraciously, and no one else has since.
Other book-related scares: a guy whose bookcase contained Carnegie's "How to Make Friends and Influence People" and "How to Seduce Women" (or something like that -- I've blocked this out). Actually, he had a couple of books with similar titles, which made me think this was no mere post-mod irony.
Golfing books would probably freak me out a little. Although I knit, and so I can imagine my knitting books (which are of the post-mod ironic variety, even though they also teach you to knit) might freak someone out.
The National Review. Not a book, I know, but urgh. Same with Time or Newsweek or any other "news" weekly.
The Bell Curve. anything on evolutionary psych, which in my experience is really just a way to justify race and gender hierarchies. Tells me the guy isn't going to be too ready to deal with a woman smarter than he is.
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Oops!
I used an apostrophe in idiots.
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To Elusis, on "The Thinking Man's Guide ..."
It isn't that he actually read it that would be the problem but the fact that he felt compelled to list it.
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Can't throw copies of The DaVinci Code...
When I've read it myself. Along with "good" stuff, I read so much crap. Some of it is for fun, some for nostalgia, some for plane trips. Some turn out to be pleasant surprises, like Bridget Jones' Diary. I wouldn't judge someone on their reading tastes. Well no, I'd judge, but I wouldn't not date someone based on taste unless it affected our compatibility. Like if he was reading Ann Coulter or Bill O'Reilly, then putting the books down thinking, "Hm, s/he/it has a point!" Nope!
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As long as we're talking about phases...
How would you preliminarily judge someone who possesses an undeniable affection for Kurt Vonnegut? Seems like the old coot gets forgotten after high school, along with Ayn Rand. Most of the time.
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What's the book that would torpedo my relationship?
The Bible. The Book of Mormon. The Koran. Dianetics. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The Left Behind series, or anything by Tim LaHaye. Anything by Deepak Chopra. Anything by Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Dinesh D'Souza, Bill O'Reilly, et al. Anything from the New Age bookshelf. Anything by Danielle Steele. Anything by Tom Clancy.
Whew, that's quite a list already, and I'm just getting started! Hmm, let's see...
Anything on the "New Atheism" by Chris Hedges. Anything by...
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Literary Deal Breaker?
Silly.
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The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands
by "Dr." Laura Schlessinger.
(Haven't read the earlier comments, has that one already been listed?)
I am in 2 book clubs, and I'd love to hear a man's perspective, or recommendations. I think the discussions would be much richer. (Though I guess most men would consider this a form of torture).
My husband and I are both voracious readers (I average 3-4 non text-books a month, he probably does 4-5). He likes science fiction (the kind that gets really detailed about physics, chemistry, and engineering, not just the "space operas"), and I like historical fiction and classical lit (but I'll give almost any book a try) (some of my recent favorites: "What's the Matter with Kansas?", "The Namesake", "The Years of Rice and Salt", "100 Years of Solitude" and I confess! "The Other Boleyn Girl") .
I have read many books he's recommended (off the top of my head, I loved "The Dark Between the Stars", "Ender's Game", "Darwin's Radio", and "1632"). He's .... not read any of my picks. Which, while hardly a contentious point in our relationship, does make me a little disappointed. I like reading what he reads, because I feel more connected to him: how he thinks, how he views the world, what influences his imagination, etc. I find him fascinating. I wonder why he's not as curious about me?
But I suspect that's all male/female dynamics, and I don't intend it as criticism.
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The writer of the article has a very limited worldview...
...very metropolitan, coastal, intellectual, etc. Her snobbery and choosiness might be appropriate for Manhattan, but honestly, in most of the USA, I think women would be happy to date a man who reads any books at all, other than his Ford F150 owner's manual. My tongue is nowhere near my cheek...
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Fond memories of Ayn Rand toting hippie chick
I had a friend who moved to a remote rural area. He said it had changed his view of women--"out here, if a woman still has some of her own teeth we consider her a great beauty."
I feel that way about women who read. They're so scarce that they're all beautiful to me. I have had memorable relationships with women who read Ayn Rand, Wiccan manuals, Dan Brown, Bridges, the Mammoth Hunters, and even Lorrie Moore.
On the other hand, my Nabokov ex? Whoa, never again. Tolstoy girls are easy. Easier than Anais Nin girls, actually.
I've always aspired to go out with a woman who reads Alice Munro, but I guess they are out of my league.