''Don’t
date a girl who reads because girls who read are storytellers. You with
the Joyce, you with the Nabokov, you with the Woolf. You there in the
library, on the platform of the metro, you in the corner of the café,
you in the window of your room. You, who make my life so goddamned
difficult. The girl who reads has spun out the account of her life and
it is bursting with meaning. She insists that her narratives are rich,
her supporting cast colorful, and her typeface bold. You, the girl who
reads, make me want to be everything that I am not. But I am weak and I
will fail you, because you have dreamed, properly, of someone who is
better than I am. You will not accept the life of which I spoke at the
beginning of this piece. You will accept nothing less than passion, and
perfection, and a life worthy of being told. So out with you, girl who
reads. Take the next southbound train and take your Hemingway with you.
Or, perhaps, stay and save my life.''
