A Girl Who Reads

A girl who reads. A girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. A girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

A girl who reads. She always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Let her know that you understand that words are love.
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 will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

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.

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.

― Rosemary Urquico