Rachel Donadio, in a recent NYTimes article, makes the case for literature being a possible deal-breaker when it comes to relationships:
Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the … problem: when a missed — or misguided — literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast. At least since Dante’s Paolo and Francesca fell in love over tales of Lancelot, literary taste has been a good shorthand for gauging compatibility. These days, thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, listing your favorite books and authors is a crucial, if risky, part of self-branding. When it comes to online dating, even casual references can turn into deal breakers.
The Spouse and I bonded early on a love of Shakespeare, despite an on-going argument about it being great theatre or great literature (he would win, of course, but Will is still a damn good read). Our tastes have kind of diverged from there, his to a diet of Stephen King, Orson Scott Card and Frank Herbert and the like, mine to a lot of non-fiction, mystery novels and works by women. We’ll occasionally exchange titles, but we certainly don’t base our relationship on books in common.
Marco Roth, an editor at the magazine n+1, said: “I think sometimes it’s better if books are just books. It’s part of the romantic tragedy of our age that our partners must be seen as compatible on every level.”
In point, one of Donadio’s literary interviewees has a partner who doesn’t read at all: “When she wants to talk about books, she goes to her book group.”
I’m just happy he reads. In fact, he probably spends more time reading than I do. Our sons hardly read at all, which makes me feel guilty (I just couldn’t read The Cat in the Hat for the 400th time) and I’m finding that a lot of their generation doesn’t read, either. It takes too much of their time.
What I’m reading now: It’s a toss-up between an early Denise Mina crime novel and The Madwoman in the Attic, a critical examination of 18th century woman writers (for my Jane Austen Book Club). I frequently read two books at once.
What gets read at your house?