A Question for Poly's Literati (or: Getting D laid more often: A project not worth your time)

[Dis]

How do you know if they are bad if you don't read them?

just like I know this movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Justin_to_Kelly is bad without having seen it.

[Imran Siddiqui]

To quote Asimov: "you don't have to eat the whole egg to know it's bad".

Honestly, a plot summary or a few pages is generally enough to tell you if a book is an utter piece of ****.

Which is a bit different. Reading a few pages or chapters can tell you how the rest of the story will read. You are "eating part of the egg" so to speak.

just like I know this movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Justin_to_Kelly is bad without having seen it.

You assume it is . It just may be, but until you watch, you don't really know.

[KrazyHorse]

Personal experience is overrated. We have crossed the point where any individual can have experienced any significant portion of the human race's creative output. It's all pastiche from here on out.

[CrONoS]

I'm reading Flaubert's Madame Bovary (in French) as we speak. Its an amazing novel, probably one of the best written novels I ever read, but I heard that the english translation is not very good.

I'm also reading the stories of Chekhov. They're good, but can't say I'm impressed so far. But a lot of them are really short. So you can read a 2-3 page short story when you don't have much time.

I always recommend Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities". Its an amazing, amazing book. But I don't know you, so its hard to say whether you'd like or not.

Anyway, you go at it all wrong. Don't let boring old university snobs tell you what you should read or not.

[Club thread]
Since I was illiterate of my own ethnic literature. I decided to read novels from Quebecois writers. I just finished Prochain Épisode from Hubert Aquin! Wow, it's actually stunning. The style & the depth of this novels are amazing. I read several pages two times just because of the styles that hooked me.

I think, I'll began Réjean Ducharme: "Va Savoir" from a recommendation from my gf.

Any suggestions?[/club thread]

[Flubber]

What I want to do is take issue with your base premise that to find a girl/woman of sufficient intelligence for a long-term relationship that you need to engage in such an exercise. Read what you think you might enjoy. Even read some truly mindless stuff if you enjoy it at all. Some of your brainy ladies might appreciate that you confess to a guilty pleasure like a Sydney Sheldon-- its stuff you can almost read in your sleep and probably shows her you can be just fun sometimes-- Obviously you have some ability to just be fun if you are successful in picking up a barfly from time to time

Other than that, take up some things outside reading that interest you. Get politically involved, take up athletics, join a debate society-- whatever you think you would like-- Such endeavours I think would have much higher payoffs since you can meet someone that actually shares a real interest of yours so that you could potentially have a shared activity for years

Look at your plan critically-- lets say you go out and read 100 "classic books"--- how often do you think you and your chosen brainy lady are going to discuss any one of them? Unless she is a literature grad student or something , she probably read any one of them years ago and has not spoken of them in years. Far better to have a shared interest than to be trying to ignite a debate on War and Peace so you can demonstrate how smart you are.

Oh and what am I reading?-- I have a semi-autobiographical work by Greenspan and a history of Israel-- I read these because I think they would be interesting-- no other reason . I am happily married but if I was seeking a brainy woman, I would probably read the very same things.

If you are as smart as you seem to think you are , you don't need to have "studied" the same materials in order to captivate a smart woman. In fact, having read and experienced broadly (outside some percieved list of classics) will better allow you to make astute observations and connections that can help you show off your intelligence. Occasionally you might get lost in a conversation about some book you have never read but it won't happen that often and she might appreciate the opportunity to know something you don't-- Let her expound on why it might be an enjoyable read for you or thought-provoking and I guarantee that she will NOT be thinking 'I have to dump him if he hasn't read 1984" (Oh and if you haven't read Orwell its an easy book to knock off -- as is "Animal Farm" LOL)--

But my point is that if a woman likes you at all, she won't care if you have read book x or y . I think its far better to show off your intelligence in other ways by being able to comment intelligently on current events, even pop culture. And its INFINITELY better to sometimes just be fun and not feel the overwhelming urge to show off your intellect all the time. Even the brainy girl can enjoy hot sex, or a mindless comedy,or whatever--

If she cannot, do you really want to be with her all the time? Don't you ever want to just relax?

[Dis]

and I of course am no expert. But how do books allow one to get laid? Am I missing something?

OK I can understand the smart woman desire. Out of curiosity where do you meet these women? Either I live in a very dumb city (may be true) that has no smart women, or I'm simply not going to the right places. Every woman I see is dumb as a brick. I suppose hanging out in college is the place to meet smart women???

[DanS]

Lots of smart young women (late 20's with Ph. D's) in my office. Not counting the obvious "girl" books, I have recently seen them reading books like The Great Gatsby, The Importance of Being Ernest, Things Fall Apart, Great Expectations, and anything by Evelyn Waugh.

Achebe is good. Not too thick and D can then talk at length about race relations, colonialism, interaction of religion and society, etc.

[Imran Siddiqui]

my point is that if a woman likes you at all, she won't care if you have read book x or y

But she may care that you haven't read any fiction books .

[DanS]

So, in short, I figure I'll have to try to throw in at least a hundred pages of leisure reading a day just to get anywhere near caught up, but I don't even know where to start.

Depends on where you live regarding availability, but you may be able to kill two birds with one stone by joining a reading club. You probably will find the ratios favorable.

[Elok]

I recommend a Twain binge. He can actually be quite funny and qualifies as brainy. Also Shakespeare, but he's not exactly easy. Try H.G. Wells for "respectable" sci-fi. I don't see why you'd even want to have a one-night-stand with somebody who likes truly modern lit. God only knows what kind of diseases those people carry.

[Zkribbler]

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
10. Middlemarch by George Eliot

Huck Finn is okay. The rest are overrated crap.

Maybe Lancer will wonder into this thread later. Years ago, he owned a book store and was constantly set upon by lonely literari wimmen. Of course, they were left-wing crazies, which is antithetical to Lancer, so he sold the bookstore and went into carpentry.

BTW: In my past, I once met a woman who wanted to talk Shakespeare, which I could. I once met a woman who loved Russian literature -- of which I know nothing. So we talked about other stuff.

Another approach to the literarti: Ask them what books they like and why. Ask them which one do they think you should read.

[Jon Miller]

War and Peace is awesome.

JM

[Imran Siddiqui]

So is Hamlet.

[KrazyHorse]

zkribbler is not

[DanS]

What I want to do is take issue with your base premise that to find a girl/woman of sufficient intelligence for a long-term relationship that you need to engage in such an exercise.

I don't know what the big deal is. He's looking for a couple good conversation pieces to hook the ones who are pre-selected by virtue of their reading habits. I'm sure there are other methods, like KHs'. Worst case is that his language skills improve.