Literary Deal-Breakers--Must Be Egalitarian to Apply.

Everyone else is talking about this, so why can't we?

Thanks to the an essay by The Times' Rachel Donadio, bloggers around the 'sphere are talking about what you look for, literary taste-wise, in a potential mate, and what books, should you espy them on a bedside table, would send you fleeing into the night.

I didn't really have any such deal-breakers back in college, but one thing I've realized when comparing my boyfriend to the super-Serious guys I once aspired to hang with, is that the most important thing for me is a partner who loves "great" literature, but not at the exclusion of fun literature. I'm glad that my Joyce-Faulkner-Melville-lovin' boyfriend happily accompanied me to see the unfairly-maligned Da Vinci Code on the big screen and at this very moment, as I try to explain to him why some people (wrongly) rag on Dan Brown, says "they're morons."

In other words, to enter my/our world, you have to be an egalitarian bookworm (duh.) It's this love of the entire range of literature that we share,I tend to like more plot-driven novels and enjoy 19th century narration, he gravitates towards novels with gorgeous prose, but we each also devour everything from Science fiction to "chick-lit" if it strikes our fancy. We are consumers, not connoisseurs. And we try not to take ourselves too seriously*!

Plus, he likes Jane Austen! And that is definitely worth a billion bonus points.

*(But still, this article did get me thinking that it's high time I impressed him by devouring Moby Dick and having clever things to say about it. This summer, I promise!)