Now I am not especially well read, many of the books I’d put in a list of favourites were read as part of a school curriculum or from younger years when I lived for reading and would power my way through a book in the space of an evening. This article from the New York Times describes how for many a person’s reading choices or how well read they are would determine levels of compatibility and whether or not a relationship would survive.

We’ve all been there. Or some of us have. Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the Pushkin problem: when a missed — or misguided — literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast. At least since Dante’s Paolo and Francesca fell in love over tales of Lancelot, literary taste has been a good shorthand for gauging compatibility. These days, thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, listing your favorite books and authors is a crucial, if risky, part of self-branding. When it comes to online dating, even casual references can turn into deal breakers.

The line of text that relates most to me is the line ‘Or some of us have’. Now I will admit I have bought books to enable a point of conversation with a girl (‘The Life of Pi’) and have lied about reading a book also to impress having just seen the film version (‘A Clockwork Orange’). While I absolutely want to be with someone capable of having a conversation, their choice of reading will never be an absolute deal breaker. I guess there can be those crushing moments where you find out some detail of someone’s tastes and you think all hopes of common ground to build a relationship on are lost. I’m pretty certain I couldn’t ever be with the girl who was involved in a conversation I overheard on a bus one time where she stated that Clint Eastwood was the guy from Indiana Jones. This may be shallow, but I want my love interest to know these things. I’m OK with them not wanting to tackle Faulkner, I am not OK with loving movies with ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ stars.