i can't say i'm not biased, but...

"Date a girl who reads, who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve. She will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop. That’s the reader, [who] can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

"Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Let her know that you understand that words are love.

"Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book.

"[A girl who reads understands that] behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. [Miscommunication] will not be the end of the world. A girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. All things will come to [an] end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two. Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop.

"If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

"You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick.

"You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

"Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

"Or better yet, date a girl who writes."

-Rosemarie Urquico