Thursday, September 22, 2011

Date a girl who reads.

I found the most perfect quote ever. EVER.

Quote by Rosemary Urquico.
Quote found here, sent to me via Sunrise.

Source: here



"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.

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 and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, 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 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 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. That life 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, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

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 propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

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 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 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."   -Rosemary Urquico

12 comments:

  1. Ayushi, I am haere after along time.. hope you are doing fine yes, one always admires the girls who read...but there aren't many.. and for that matter not many men have such kind of understanding.. so those who read will always know when the right one comes.. so it depends more on her.. I liked your write.. do have alook at my page for some fun at Haiku Heights..

    -RS

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  2. Lovely, lovely stuff! I am saving this for posterity. Many, many thanks, Aayushi and Sunrise! :)

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  3. And this - "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 Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots."

    ^^^
    To be loved like this wud be so, so wonderful. :)

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  4. @Tangled...
    You're welcome. Even I am kind of still overwhelmed by this quote.

    And oh, the ways in which the quote appeals to the romantic in me.... :D

    My personal favourite line is - "Let her know that you understand that words are love"

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  5. Read it a while back somewhere. Your post freshened those memories. Thank You!

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  6. :-)

    I was actually thinking yesterday how I should buy all the books I used to read as a child - Sweet Valley High, Babysitters Club, Enid Blyton's Famous Five, Secret Seven, The Naughtiest Girl, Mallory Towers, The Sleepover Club - because they are slowly and surely going out of print, and save them so that when my kids are old enough, they can see the kind of books their mother used to read and maybe follow in my footsteps and learn to love pages. :) Not quite Aslan and Cat in the Hat, but I loveeee those books so much!! They were the perfect introduction for a young girl into the world of reading and books and Cat in the Hat and Aslan! <3

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  7. This is such a fresh piece of writing, all of it . So rejuvenating. It gives food for thought and makes me smile . A wide mouthed smile .

    But yeah, I agree - Date a girl who writes. They're more extroverted and fun !

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  8. Hi Ayushi!
    I've been reading for your blog for a while now and you've been been on my blogroll for a bit, but I just realised that I've never commented on any of your posts. I've read this one before.
    http://themonicabird.com/post/3633068575/be-a-girl-who-reads - I don't know if you've ever come across this, but it's on the the same lines.
    Keep writing. I look forward to your posts.

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  9. @mgeek: You're welcome.

    @Sunrise: I know, right? None of the little kids I know these days read Enid Blyton! It's such a shame! And I've grown up devouring pretty much all the same books as you :D I cannot imagine how much I would have missed out on without my Enid Blyton books!

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  10. @Mrigank: Thanks for the comment:) Glad to know you're reading! Keep dropping by... I read that post, thank you, liked it a lot.

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  11. '...words are love.'
    that seems to be the only way I've ever known.

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  12. Aayushi, I know! I think we're the last Enid Blyton generation. And the Harry Potter generation! It's all Twilight and its ilk from here on, sadly.

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