I just read this article on Slate and I adore it. I loved this line:
There are many reasons why bookstores are naturally romantic environments: the smell of paper, the soft lighting, the baseline understanding that those inside like to read, and are therefore probably not morons.
Adam surprised me before our wedding by adding the Jimmy Buffett song that loaned its title to this post to our reception playlist (and wisely played it for me in advance, knowing how unlikely I was to hear the words in the midst of that evening). Long a believer in creating the perfect playlist for all situations (and a maker of mix-cds and their waaaaay older brother mix-tapes before digital downloads rendered these format passe), Adam played dj for our wedding, creating a playlist on our ipod suited to each part of the evening. I found the gesture of choosing this song meaningful for obvious reasons as well as the fact that I love Jimmy Buffett and Adam...doesn't. Similarly, I love bookstores and Adam...doesn't. We are not the people of this article, wandering hand-in-hand through the shelves, picking up books with which to woo each other. When Adam sees me arriving home from a bookstore, laden with purchases he just sighs and asks where they're all going to go. (When we moved 10 months ago we brought innumerable boxes of books to our new home, our movers hated us.) My working in libraries has translated to a precipitous decline in the number of books purchased (and a corresponding jump in overdue library books).
Anyway, I was just captivated by the author's whole premise. I tried to imagine a similar article praising the library as a place to pick up a date...and I failed. But why? We have the smell of paper, admittedly harsher lighting and...well...I'm going to leave that last part alone. It's not that it (library romance) hasn't been tried. I've yet to meet a librarian who hasn't been asked out at least once by a patron (and it's inevitably the skeezy, smelly patrons). And I do regularly see people use the library's resources to try to further their quest for romance. Patrons use the computers to manage their online dating profiles, social networking sites and when it comes to print resources don't even get me started on all the romance-centric self-help books that circulate. (If I had to hear one more request for Steve Harvey's Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man last year...) I've seen the library used as a place to hook-up, I've definitely chased teens out of the darker corners of the non-fiction section and we've all heard the stories about the study carrels in University libraries. However, none of these are really the stuff of romance and love songs. I'm not sure what it is that makes a bookstore a likelier place to meet someone than a library. Maybe the ubiquitous attached coffee shops? The later hours? Are bookstores just cooler than libraries?
Plus reading this article now has me wondering, would a bookstore be a place for to try to pick up potential friends? (I will at some point post about how miserable it is to try to make friends as a grown-up [it sucks].)
What do you think, why is a bookstore a better spot for romance than a library?
I still remember first year of law school, going to the bookstore with H (before we started dating) and the two of us completely bonding over our favorite authors, books, etc. We definitely fell for each other that day, so bookstores are a special place ever since :)
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question, I'd say its easier in a bookstore then a library due to the facts that not all people find the smell of moldy books (your paper) their particular brand of eau de toilette that makes their heart go a-flutter. Most of the time the sound of fluorescent lighting does not a Berry White song make, and ... Libraries don't come with coffee shops ;) I bet you 5 dollars that if you made every library into a "Tome with some Joe" location, love could be read all over it.
ReplyDeleteOn a more personal note, I feel that love is best created where food is close by...but then again, I am a fluffy kid, so food tends to be a recurring theme in my life :) Jeff and I re-met at a Dunkin Donuts...nuff said ;)