What do your reading choices say about you? Do you judge your friends, romantic or platonic, by what they read or don’t read? I have been pondering this as I read one of the most emailed articles on The New York Times site recently; it is Rachael Donadio’s essay It’s Not You, It’s Your Books. The essay begins with the writer getting a call from a friend who had just broken up with her boyfriend exclaiming, “He hadn’t even heard of Pushkin!”
Well, I don’t require a friend to read Pushkin but I think it is a good indicator of compatibility.
Funny comments follow the essay, one person saying anyone who loved Da Vinci Code would get the boot, another saying any book by Ayn Rand would be a turn-off and another saying the whole notion is too elite. Another commenter added there are now “literary speed dating” events at libraries where people bring a favorite book and find new like-minded friends. Years ago, my own “speed dating” question was to find out if the guy read at all; if not, how boring! What does your book shelf say about you?
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