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

[KrazyHorse]

Oh, and line delivery is not that hard when the girl's been drinking (or you have, or even better, both).

Plus it helps when you're not actually trying to sleep with them.

[Arrian]

My brainy wife liked many of the nerdy sci-fi/fantasy books I've read (Asimov, Tolkein, Eddings, Weis/Hickman, Guy Gabriel Kay, and several others I'm forgetting), with forays into the suspense/horror/justplainodd (Koontz/Steven King) and vampire stuff (she's gotten around to Stoker's Drakula now).

I don't have any great advice for books that you can use in conversation with women (this would require that I be "Literati" and someone who knows how to talk to women, both of which are questionable ). I mean, you could go the "Jane Austen Book Club" route, I suppose I quite enjoyed the Aubrey/Maturin books (Master & Commander, etc), but I dunno if they qualify as what you're asking for here...

-Arrian

[KrazyHorse]

Honestly, I think that aiming to read a bunch of fiction books to pick up women basically guarantees that you're going to end up with a pretentious *****.

[Flubber]

You aren't getting it, I'm afraid. There are many tools useful in getting laid. Boning up on current events may be one of them. But novels is the one that D is talking about right now. He might also bone up on current events, if he wants to attract a certain type of intelligent person. He might also take up weightlifting to keep his svelte figure. Or take up acting classes in order to deliver his lines like KH says he does. Or whatever.

No you aren't getting it-- He seemed to want to find some worthy of being around for more than one night-- Looked to me he was was looking for ways to actually find a relationship type thing-- you know-- attract and keep a smart girl that would interest him

To me, seeking a list of things he should read (regardless of whether he would enjoy the reading) seems a big chore. It would be even worse to be talking about it , again if he doesn't have the interest. It might succeed in the short term but if he truly doesn't enjoy the reading and discussing of such books, it seems a crappy relationship for him.

As I said a few times, if he thinks he would enjoy the reading then do that too. I actually recommend reading generally. I just think that if the purpose is a somewhat time-crunched person trying to read to obtain and maintain the ability to carry on interesting conversations with an intelligent woman, he would get far more impact from reading current events. They are discussed far more widely and often--

I truly think that he would get further than trying to cram to be impressive about classical fiction-- So read these books if you think you would like to do so-- but I think there are other ways that are more time effective if you are looking for ways to hold the long term interest of a smart woman

[Arrian]

Honestly, I don't think my wife and I have discussed literature. Ever. I mean, beyond "oh I like that book. Give it a read."

-Arrian

[DanS]

Expert impersonations?

**** it, finding your drunk threads is easy, but can't find the one(s) where you talked about your impersonations. I'm thinking that you were just snagging free drinks.

[Flubber]

I quite enjoyed the Aubrey/Maturin books (Master & Commander, etc), but I dunno if they qualify as what you're asking for here...

-Arrian

I loved that series. Even though its fiction I enjoy the pictures it paints of Napoleonic era society and military life. I fnd when you read historical fiction that tries to be accurate, you get such a vivid picture of the times

[KrazyHorse]

**** it, finding your drunk threads is easy, but can't find the one(s) where you talked about your impersonations. I'm thinking that you were just snagging free drinks.

Ah, yeah. Sorry, not to be getting on your ass but I was just confused. I wasn't trying to be a dick.

Usually my drunk interactions with women tend to go along the lines of me saying something absolutely ridiculous in a semi-lucid way and having them completely buy it because they're drunk too.

The margarita review episode was ****ing classic, on the other hand.

[Ben Kenobi]

Flubber, do you like Bernard Cornwell?

[Zkribbler]

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is quite good, "1984" is pretty good and easy to read, etc.

Finally someone is talking some sense!

Flubber, do you like Bernard Cornwell?

Good stuff, but I wouldn't read it to impress women...except for Fallen Angels.

[MattBowron]

Have you read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell?

For a brief summary, it's six novellas tied together written in different style, 19th century melvillian colonialist seavoyage, 20th century bi artist romanticist tragedy, 20th century pulp 70s corporate conspiracy thriller, early 21st century comedy memoir, future bladerunneresk sci-fi thriller, and far future postapocalyptic survival thriller

[Darius871]

Fiction is gay.

You don't have to tell me twice.

God, the top of that reader's list from Random House is dreadful. Absolutely fvcking dreadful. I've read many of those novels and most are pure shit.

Yeah, that's why I came here instead of the dozens of reader's lists Google can find. Thanks for the valiant effort though Imran.

It should be noted that reading classics won't get you laid by brainy chicks. You need to be up on contemporary literature.

I never said anything about "classics," I just said whatever "literaturey-type" crap that pseudointellectuals like to blather on about, which I suppose would include contemporary.

Actually, your best bet, Darius, is to find moderately obscure authors that the ladies haven't read, so you can turn this situation around. They'll think you've already read the contemporary stuff and are just ahead of them. As for the contemporary stuff, cliffnotes and wikipedia are your friends. You are just doing this to get laid, right? Not for any personal growth or crap like that?

Even easier is to just make some **** up. Like how I'm currently reading a conceptual postmodern novel by an author from French Guiana. It's structured as a cookbook where the recipes reveal more and more about the inner psychological turmoil of the anonymous narrator. I'm pretty sure that the narrator's wife is being unfaithful to him, possibly with a sommelier. Not to reveal anything, but the next chapter is titled "Chicken Florentine" which, unless it's ironic is a dead giveaway.

Now that's damned good thinking guys! If I want "personal growth" I'll read something real, so yes knowing fiction is just to figure out whatever the hell ladies think about. Not really to "get laid" as you say, since I could just target dirt-dumb sluts if that were the issue. The problem is that they're ****ing boring. It's about being able to hold down a conversation with a non-dirt-dumb-slut as the case may be.

Don't need to read book if you do this.

Too boring. I honestly haven't even bothered with that in a month.

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.

yes-- so perhaps he reads a few out of interest.

I want to take issue with your base premise that I am capable of "enjoy[ing]" any type of fiction whatsoever. This is going to be a miserable gauntlet any way I slice it. Textbooks are always a fun read, but who seriously wants to sit and talk about 10b-5 claims, the feasibility of extrapolating the Febre remedy to S.19 counts, or MR 3.3 disclosures over drinks? Even if such a dream girl exists on this earth, which I doubt, the odds that we'll cross paths are virtually nil.

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

Too much time commitment. Maybe in another life.

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.

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

What Imran said; I don't honestly expect to sit and talk about a specific must-read book, but it certainly speaks volumes to have read >NONE<.

Despite his claims, I figure he had to have read some fiction. Hell we had to read "Animal Farm' in high school.

Dude, we're talking late-20th-century American public school here. I honestly cannot name a single fictional book that I read cover-to-cover for school. Maybe, maybe I got through over 50% of "To Kill a Mockingbird," but I didn't even pass that low hurdle for anything else. A mishmash Cliff's Notes, encyclopedias, whatever snippets of classroom discussion the subconscious picks up while sleeping through class, and movie adaptations always sufficed for a passing grade.

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.

But having "read...broadly" is exactly what I'm looking for. I've experienced at least once more things than most people have, but even amusing "anecdotes" run out eventually. Apparently normal people also try to "experience" things vicariously through others in the form of fiction, so I need to get up to speed on that ignored part of life, that's all.

show off your intelligence. ... show off your intellect all the time

I never said I want to do any such thing. It's not about showing off anything so much as understanding the perspective of someone who has lived vicariously. Having some sense of that heretofore foreign mindset would help me understand the observations such a person makes about the real world, and the connections they make to the fake world. To be clear, I'm not necessarily talking about sitting and discussing a specific book. It has more to do with overall perspective/mindset toward the world, and observations about it, that are subtly influenced by one's vicarious "experiences."

I believe he is overestimating how valuable reading a whole bunch of fiction will be-- You are far more likely to get into a debate on current events/politics/ social policy than you are to speak about any individual book.

If you more broadly read history, world events, opinion pieces on social policy etc etc, you get a broad background to make intelligent commentary on a broad spectrum of issues which come up in intelligent conversation every day.

he would get far more impact from reading current events. They are discussed far more widely and often--

When it comes to current events/politics, in my experience even that well dries up by the fourth or fifth date. I'm already exceptionally well-informed in that area (nonfiction has never been a problem as I've said repeatedly, so no need to "bone up" here any more than I already do), but there comes a point where nothing you can say on the topic hasn't already been said, and nobody likes a broken record. Maybe I'm just more bored by the redundancy than she would be, but there's no getting around that. Perhaps that's the root problem to begin with.

[CrONoS]

@Darius:
Crime and Punishment by F. Dostoievsky
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_and_Punishment

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The novels is not so complicated (unlike The Possessed). You'll get into the book pretty easily. Dostoievsky is coool and his books are very good.

Girls like it, you'll like it, everybody wins!

[CrONoS]

DP

[Darius871]

Thanks, that's another I've always been a bit interested in but never got around to.