Gene, 37

What are you reading?
I am reading Binocular Vision. It's a collection of short stories by Edith Pearlman.

Why did you choose this book?
I was reading an op-ed from Margaret Atwood in the New York Times, and that's when I found out there was no Pulitzer for fiction this past year. But Atwood said this collection should've won.

What is it about?
It's kind of a human-nature type of thing, similar to Alice Munro. Just literary fiction about people. There's a love thread, a love and loss thread, a family thread.

Would you recommend this to a prospective love interest?
Absolutely. It's an amazing book, and I'd never heard of Edith Pearlman until I read that op-ed. I would strongly recommend it.

Have you ever lost a book in a relationship?
Oh no. I keep my books close.

Are you a margin-note-maker?
Not typically. There have been a couple layman science books that I might allow myself to lightly pencil in, but it still hurts when I do it. I do not dog-ear. I think dog-earing is a horrible thing to do to a book. Just find a receipt in your pocket and stick with that.

I know a lot of people who write and mark up books think of it as a romantic thing to do to the book.
I don't hold it against people who actually do it. I can certainly see the romanticism in forgetting the book for years and coming back and seeing the margin marks that you've made.

Want to meet a late-blooming ginger of your own? Meet them on Nerve.