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Nerve Dating poll: is voluntary illiteracy a dealbreaker?
By Sean MorrowApril 26th, 2012, 3:15 pmComments (16)
In a recent Nerve interview, someone said that they broke up with a partner for not reading. We wanted to know if more of you felt the same way, so we threw the poll to Nerve Daters. How important is it to you that your partner be a reader?
A miniscule 12% said that as long as someone can read, it doesn't matter if they do. Almost three quarters of you said it's "sort of" important. A sentiment I, as a Chaucersexual (someone who is only sexually attracted to Geoffrey Chaucer) can hardly relate to. The problem is that, in today's increasingly rarified world of media, "books" is not a shared interest anymore than "music" is. You can tell someone you like to read, and they might respond to your speech about David Foster Wallace with an impassioned endorsement of James Patterson.
A handful of our voters said it's very important to date a reader, which is great. These people have really picked up on the John Waters quote I used for the thumbnail of this article. If you can't read it on the homepage, here it is:
We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them.
Indeed.
Lastly, one voter said they "love literary pick-up lines!" What are your favorite pick-up lines from books? Office favorites are below.
If you were fifteen years younger, I'd let you call me Humbert Humbert.
Are you a pig's head on an island? Because you're the lord of my fly.
Much like Finnegan's Wake, I get harder by the chapter.
Is your body Cthulu? Because I'm going mad just looking at it.
Add your own in the comments.
And would you like to find someone that matches your finely-calibrated sense of literacy? Try Nerve Dating.







Commentarium (16 Comments)
I bet you a zillion dollars that if those 13% would change their tunes if they were single.
I bet you a zillion dollars I wouldn't. Some of us have standards.
the other 87% are just undate-able, illiterate, slobs
Bullshit. 12% are illiterate slobs. 75% are literate and likely engaged, but also aren't English major douchebags.
If someone I was dating wasn't a reader it would be a definite deal breaker I love reading and it's great to talk to someone about different books, a perfect night would be both of us on the sofa with hot tea and a book me stretched out with my head on her lap reading, we would take turns reading to each other fun times and yes i realize how sappy that may sound
Are you high?
nope just a hopeless romantic
The answer options make even less sense than the question.
I went on a first date yesterday. She mentioned that she was excited to see The Hunger Games, so I asked if she had read the book.
"No. I hate books. I haven't read one in like five years. I have a big DVD collection. Why would I want to read?"
There will be no second date.
To any ladies out there who don't enjoy reading, know that at least some of us don't care.
What if you don't read books, but read magazines/newspapers/etc. Ie you know no fiction but everything about the real world.
When you are sitting alone in your room with your 17 cats, you can at least console yourself that you have a lot of books as well.
Voluntary illiteracy is the most pernicious scourge of American society. Pick a flaw - indifference to scientific fact, religious zealotry, bigotry, misogyny, political disengagement - and it's almost certainly true that the general public's aversion to reading is among the root causes. It's probably the one perversion that that I could never accept in a partner.
I agree. You don't have to read as much as I do but "I haven't read a book or magazine in years and I hardly know how to" is not something to be proud about.
I have to admit I'm okay with someone who doesn't read as long as they can read. It would be great to be able to read a book with a guy but I'm okay for someone who isn't too into books. However, if they ever think books are "stupid," they are out the door.
Reading for me isn't a couple activity. If we respect each other's hobbies, then there is no need to share every single one.