I hope you're one of the best minds of my generation, because I'd love to see you naked.

[the_deep_magic]

Link from Neil Gaiman's Twitter: an article about a dating site that matches people based on their love of books.  I don't know how seriously to take it, but I'd love to meet a guy who's read (and enjoyed) Geek Love or Narcissus and Goldmund (which is like the sweetest subtextual gay love story ever and would make a perfect Pinto AU*).  Also included in the article is a delightful list of literary pickup lines.

So, I'm curious: are there any books that, if you saw on a potential significant other's shelf, you'd immediately think "yup, we're compatible"?  Or, conversely, any that would be absolute dealbreakers?  Obviously a shelf full of Dan Brown or L. Ron Hubbard is a huge red flag.  But I also think there's a Nietzsche Threshold -- two or three books is acceptable and even desirable; more than that says "whack job who's going to start throwing the word ubermensch into daily conversation."

Also, fic rec from the kink meme: Together by jumpmybones for a Pinto reincarnation prompt.  It's a short one, but full of so many heart-rending and sweet details.

*Srsly, even the physical descriptions of the characters match up.  Obviously would have to be tweaked a bit, as they aren't together or even communicating for most of the book, even though they're there in each other's thoughts all the time.  Sigh...  I would write it if I weren't a) already committed to a dozen other things and b) certain I'd horribly mangle it.  Repressed!monk!Zach and romantic!artist!Chris

Comments

[ashleyj28.livejournal.com]

Hmm, my significant other is actually reading Nietzsche - in fact has recently been reading one of his books and highlighting passages. HE IS THAT GUY. We're new - should I be worried?

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... keep an eye out. He's probably just interested in philosophy, but if he starts droning on about the will to power and growing a mustache, there could be problems.

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes, travel books! And I've known a couple of guys who genuinely thought they were Byron, so... yeah. Not so much.

[tikra.livejournal.com]

first of all, i think it's awesome that you know narciussus and goldmund. i absolutely love that book! or... any book by herman hesse because of the subtle gay text xD (have you read beneath the wheel or demian as sell?)

then a book where i would think: yep, great, WHEN DO WE GET MARRIED?? actually a couple:
-kafka on the shore by haruki murakami
-torture the artist by joey goebel
-watership down by richard adams
-death in venice by thomas mann

yeah, to name but a few :)

[babykid528.livejournal.com]

This becomes a problematic question for me, lol! (Of course!)

Before I even answer, I freaking LOVE Dan Brown!! XD So if potential life partner also love Dan Brown, then I'm more than okay with that. Robert Langdon is a *Sexy* character and Tom Hanks only made him more so! ;-)

But to really answer the question, I want to say Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury, which should come as no shock to anyone who knows me, since I live, breathe, and die for that novel, BUT it would depend upon how said potential life partner feels about the novel. If he/she isn't in love with Quentin and Caddy and doesn't adore Benjy and abhor Jason and doesn't think it's the most beautiful work of fiction ever created, and can't at all see my gender theory/queer theory arguments about it, then that's not gonna be a lasting relationship. lol! They don't have to agree with me, not completely, but they have to accept my theories and feelings as valid, because I won't be seriously arguing about this book for the rest of my life with them. It's not happening! :-P

It'd also be really cool if he/she loved Walt Whitman, Paradise Lost, and knew Eavan Boland. <333333333

[ewinfic.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmmmmmm. Reading and enjoying Russell's The Sparrow would be a positive. Or Life of Pi, or The Carpet Makers, or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

My friend Bear lent me a book not long ago that endeared him to me called The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe (probably my favorite pseudonym ever)... he recced it specifically when I was feeling old and fat and worn-out, because it's a book about a detective in a small town in her 60's, fat, divorced, with back problems, who kicks ass to defeat a serial killer. Not sure I'd look for it on shelves, but it says something about my buddy that he enjoys novels like this (and it DID make me feel better).

No offense to anyone, but if I see one or more volumes of Ayn Rand on anybody's shelf I take a mental step back. Likewise too much Heinlein. (L. Ron Hubbard should go without saying, right? Right.)

Poetry is nice. Too much philosophy, not so much. Godel, Escher, Bach, I'd hit that.

Anybody with nonfic books geeking about mathematics is good. Books of optical illusions, likewise very squee. Coloring books or Dr. Seuss? I LOVE YOU. Actually, anybody with young adult fiction or children's fiction on their shelves would delight and charm me. Got a copy of The Phantom Tollbooth? SOLD.

I'm totally down with pulp and pop novels if that's your bag. I tend to do better with peons than I do with snobs.

Classic scifi like Asimov or Clarke is cool. And I hate admitting this given what a douche he is about politics, but OSC, because I still love his books and he's one of my primary inspirations as a writer.

When it comes to dudes:
I read a lot of authors that I just... wouldn't expect to see in the hands of a man, that would certainly make me interested in talking to him. Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, the Bronte's, Alice Walker, some few others. If I ever saw a dude reading Octavia Butler, I suspect my eyes would turn to little ♥'s in a jiffy.

But even given all that... I'm not nearly as picky about books as I am about music or movies, honestly, and that's because books are typically enjoyed in a more solitary manner. Disparate movie tastes, however, can ruin an entire relationship. If someone just didn't like Star Trek at ALL, I'm sorry, it's just not going to work out (it's not you, it's me, I need space, ha ha get it, space).

I was hopelessly in love with a man for a very long time who never read fiction at all. Now THAT should have been a warning to me.

[littlelightss.livejournal.com]

I need a package deal. A man that can talk Infinite Jest, enjoys Nabokov, is down with the Beats, and probably has has a subscription to High Times. Cause that's just how I roll.

[lavender-basil.livejournal.com]

You're committed to a dozen things? I say make it a baker's dozen and write the Narcissus and Goldmund Pinto AU. :) It would be brilliant in your hands! Brilliant!

[jouissant.livejournal.com]

The other day I saw this really cute boy sitting in a cafe drinking a coffee, eating a giant piece of coconut cake, and reading Engels. Would have preferred Butler, Sedgwick, de Beauvoir, but it sort of got me hot anyway. Although dudes who are OMG SO FEMINIST, "look how I'm not participating in ~your oppression~" kinda rub me the wrong way because in my experience they usually turn out to be secret assholes. A girl reading that stuff (or, hell, Engels) with cake in hand would have been ten times hotter and I would've asked her out on the spot probably.

My husband doesn't really read fiction anymore. He reads the books he thinks are great, Cormac McCarthy, Faulkner, Catcher in the Rye, etc. and has sort of left it at that. He prefers nonfiction history, and he knows a shit-ton of US and Texas history by now, so more power to him, I guess. I like the escapism of a novel too much to stop reading them.

On a larger cultural scale, I find a touch of the geek hot in a partner. I think it's kind of sad when there's NOTHING that a person geeks out over, be it food, Trek, cars, knitting, whatever.

[rainbowstrlght.livejournal.com]

I have to confess that I'm pretty open-minded on this topic, as long as the person reads. Just having a bookshelf of fiction and non-fiction of any sort would be charming. I've dated a non-reader, and it was extremely annoying to have a partner get jealous over my reading time, especially if I was incredibly absorbed. Ugh. (I guess that's why my standards are low.)

On the other hand, I'll confess to judging people who don't like The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. But that's because it's my favorite; and he's the writer I completely idolize.

[zjofierose.livejournal.com]

umm, you just described my husband. LOL. though i think his subscription has lapsed...

[zjofierose.livejournal.com]

when my husband and i met, we both owned the same big black hardcover versions of the complete hitchhikers guide and shakespeare's collected works.
also on his shelf? the principia discordia, arthur c clarke, star trek novels, bradbury, hemmingway, brian greene, the bhagavad-gita, and hunter s thompson.
i brought the nabokov, the tom robbins, and the fantasy. also the linguistic and religious theory shelves. *sigh*.

deal breakers for me would include catcher in the rye, dan brown, and oprah books.
love anyone with language skills, so any language books get me hot. :)

[littlelightss.livejournal.com]

Oh hot damn, lucky girl! I hadn't even seriously considered the possibility a man like that actually existed.

[zjofierose.livejournal.com]

they do!
downside is, though, that they're often pretty shy, and can be hard to locate.
once you find one, just inform him that really, you're it for him, and they kind of think for a minute, nod in agreement, and then carry on. ;)

[littlelightss.livejournal.com]

I will keep that in mind, then! There's at least one guy in my life I might be trying this out on.

[mistresscurvy.livejournal.com]

Basically, to me it boils down to this: please have read something since your college lit course, and for the love GOD do not list Ayn Rand as one of your favorite authors or any of her books. After that I'm pretty good with anything :)

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

I've read Demian, but it was a long time ago. And I gotta be honest, I finished Kafka on the Shore thinking "Huh? What just happened here?"

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

You are entitled to your opinion on Dan Brown. I will leave it at that. ;o)

Would you believe that I have somehow made it to the age of 26 without ever having read any Faulkner? It's one of those things that's on my list, but keeps getting pushed further and further down on the list because more exciting things come along. Do you have a recommendation for where I should start?

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, craploads of Heinlein or Harlan Ellison is probably a warning sign of... something not good. Phantom Tollbooth, yes, but LOTS of young adult fiction? Maybe a little worrisome.

It bothers me when people say they never read fiction like it's a good thing. Really? Really?

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

I WILL finish Infinite Jest one day! I swear!

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Well, at least give me 'til my Big Bangs are finished. And Kink Bingo. Friiiiiick.

[ewinfic.livejournal.com]

Now Harlan Ellison I adore, but I think I still only have like two story collections by him.

Lovecraft, though? Very Yes.

[littlelightss.livejournal.com]

It's so worth it. Whether you like it or not, you will feel so accomplished having finished that behemoth, I can't even tell you.

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

YES. Anyone who lets their geek flag fly is awesome!

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha ha. At my job, I've only seen a handful of students who've brought creative pieces in (it's mostly academic stuff), and of those, the majority have been guys who were trying to BE Lovecraft. And I ask myself... WHY?

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, true. I should have t-shirts and/or bumper stickers made up.

[ewinfic.livejournal.com]

You're not allowed to try to BE Lovecraft unless you're an actual geneologist. Trufax.

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yeah, I can't even conceptualize dating a non-reader. What would we even talk about?

[littlelightss.livejournal.com]

I would be the first in line to buy a t-shirt, let me tell you.

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Really, Catcher in the Rye as a dealbreaker? Mind if I ask why? (Don't worry about offending me -- I liked it just fine, but I don't see the OMGAMAZING that most people seem to see.)

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Pretty good basic standards, I think!

Oh boy, you asked me to talk about Faulkner and look what happened ;-)

[babykid528.livejournal.com]

HAHA! That's all I ask for, freedom of opinion! ;-)

HOW?!?! (O_O)

I was made to read As I Lay Dying in senior year of high school (granted it was AP Lit, but still). I'm very shocked! *nods*

The best place to start, I think, is with As I Lay Dying. It's not my favorite, but it is still really excellent (multiple narrators, unreliable narrators, a bit of mystery, fucked up family dynamics, a dead body). And it's his easiest to follow. From there you could read Light in August (that might *actually* be his easiest to follow when reading, but I never had the chance to read the entire thing).

The Sound and The Fury is pretty much the most amazing book I've ever encountered (though Madeleine L'Engle's A Ring of Endless Light will always hold my favorite book of all time title just because it had such a profound impact on my entire adolescence, but that's beside the point). However, TS&TF is really difficult to read for most people (you'd probably be fine with it, but just in case I wouldn't want you to be completely turned off from Faulkner on your first go). It's got multiple narrators (4), like AILD, and a couple of them are unreliable (Quentin more than anyone lol), but the family relationships explored and outlined in it are SO complex and beautiful and disturbing and GAH! LOVE! They are LOVE! :-)

And whether you take my advice about waiting to read TS&TF or not, absolutely heed this warning when I tell you DO NO TOUCH Absalom, Absalom! first! Just, PLEASE, don't do it! lol! At one point in time it held the world record for longest sentence ever. Most paragraphs are 4-5 pages long, and that story has four narrators too, but their narrations run together and, in some cases, overlap. It's just very bogged down and sloooow, even though I really like it as well (it deals with the same Quentin from TS&TF and his father and college roommate are all the same, so it's actually a really good idea to read this one *after* that novel, especially since there's a kind of love triangle detailed in A,A! that is meant to be a kind of mirror for Quentin and Caddy's relationship detailed in TS&TF of course, I don't see it exactly as that, but that's a whole paper-length other story ;-) ).

Re: Oh boy, you asked me to talk about Faulkner and look what happened ;-)

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't have to read any Faulkner in high school, and after that I pretty much tried to avoid all American Lit classes like the plague because they were all "OMG LET'S FAP TO NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE" and that was just. not. happening. Like, I actually had to drop one course because I knew if I finished it out, there was a slim but real chance I would never want to pick up a book again. Through some finagling I managed to fill that particular course requirement with a Greek myth class.

Anyhow, thanks for the recommendations! I think I'll check and see if the library has AILD and go from there.

[zjofierose.livejournal.com]

i hated it when i had to read it for school- it's one of the only books i've almost not finished. i can usually read anything, regardless of quality, just to give myself something to do, but i couldn't STAND holden caulfield- i spent the whole book wanting nothing more than to bitch-slap that little emo-punk into next week. it's an exercise in privileged narcissism, and i have far better things to do with my time.

and then i had a roommate who thought it was the best book ever written by anyone ever ever ever.... lol. didn't help. ;)

Re: Oh boy, you asked me to talk about Faulkner and look what happened ;-)

[babykid528.livejournal.com]

(O_O) OMG I *LOVE* American Lit!!!

I was never forced to read Hawthorne in college, but I actually kind of liked him, though never overwhelmingly. I have a weakness for New England writers though. ;-)

Of course, for someone who loves American Lit, I do hate Hemingway with a burning, fiery passion! But once middle school was finished I managed to avoid his novels and only had to suffer through his short stories, thankfully. :-P

Re: Oh boy, you asked me to talk about Faulkner and look what happened ;-)

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

You can keep the New England writers! I don't know what it is about American lit that turns me off so much, but I just don't seem to like anything written in the U.S. before about 1960. Exceptions: Poe, Fitzgerald, and Eliot (though he emigrated to Paris, so I'm not sure he counts). Oh, and Emily Dickinson in relatively small amounts.

We're in agreement about Hemingway, though.

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

i spent the whole book wanting nothing more than to bitch-slap that little emo-punk into next week

Ha ha, totally understandable! I didn't read it until I was in my 20s, so I kind of missed the period where I was able to identify with him. Cheer up, emo kid!

[zjofierose.livejournal.com]

yeah, i think i was 15? i dunno, maybe i projected the self-hate onto him? or maybe i just have never had any patience for whiners? :D could be either...

[zjofierose.livejournal.com]

yes. omg. big bangs. and kb. *puts head between knees*

Re: Oh boy, you asked me to talk about Faulkner and look what happened ;-)

[babykid528.livejournal.com]

Oh the irony... I hate Fitzgerald! lol! *shakes head*

I used to think I hated American Lit myself, before college, but being force-fed Steinbeck, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald can do that to you. *shrugs* But I love Kate Chopin, the Irvings (Washington and John), Arthur Miller, Faulkner, Dorothy Allison, Whitman, some Poe, Alcott, L'Engle, Capote (though I've only read In Cold Blood), Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Harper Lee... and I won't go on. :-)

What's your favorite geographical genre of lit then?

Re: Oh boy, you asked me to talk about Faulkner and look what happened ;-)

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

I'll give you Harper Lee and Arthur Miller... actually, I'm good with most American dramatists: Beckett, Shepherd, Albee, Williams.

Oh, Tennessee Williams. We did one of his in college, and this is the conversation I had with a friend of mine:

Me: I hear we're doing a Tennessee Williams play next semester.
Friend: Yeah? Which one?
Me: Don't remember.
Friend: Well, it's sure to be a light-hearted farce about heterosexual Northerners.

Anyhoo, when it comes to lit I'm a pretty hardcore Anglophile: Shakespeare, obviously, but also the Romantics, the early sci-fi writers, and a bunch of random others. I do like contemporary American authors quite a bit -- John Irving is actually my favorite. Also: Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood (okay, she's Canadian, but I'm counting it), Barbara Kingsolver...

[tikra.livejournal.com]

yeah, i often get that after i finished one of murakami's books. same with kafka. and even though i was utterly confused, i just loved it. his writing style is just so enthralling!

[plot-h0les.livejournal.com]

Soooo... I am saving this for later, without wine, to peruse for reading suggestions later. But my contribution is... anything by Haruki Murakami, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by MIchael Chabon, anything by Neil Gaiman, The Dark is Rising by Susan Coopeer, ok wait, I am probably going to keep listing. But that is probably a good start.

OOH I FORGOT DOUGLAS ADAMS WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME.

[the-deep-magic.livejournal.com]

YES, DOUGLAS ADAMS IS A NECESSITY. Seriously, I think if someone said "Yeah, I didn't think Hitchhiker's Guide was all that funny," I don't think we could even be friends.