BY CAMMI PHAM — First appeared on my personal blog

Don’t date a man who reads. He will be interesting. Your romantic dates will be like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Your late night conversation will take hours to end. He will throw ideas and expect you to bounce something back. Brain exercises are not for the lazies.

Don’t date a man who reads. He is fine spending time on his own. He can entertain himself for hours with or without you. A Brief History of Time might be your worst enemy. You might wonder if he is having an affair with Emma or Jane Eyre. You will always have to share his time with books. And, when you work late, he won’t get upset; books will keep him company.

Don’t date a man who reads. He is hard to please. Ideas and imagination are the fuel to his brain. You will chase the knowledge and become a better version of yourself. He might want to teach you How To Win Friends And Influence People.

Don’t date a man who reads. He is intelligent. Smart people know to invest in themselves. You will have to keep up and be more than just a pretty face. Beauty fades. Intelligence will show you the road From Here to Eternity. He will turn you from Good to Great.

Don’t date a man who reads. He will listen to your thoughts and dreams. He won’t let you sit still; he will make you chase them. It cannot be harder than The Journey To The West. He will tell you that your only limit is you.

Don’t date a man who reads. He will Think And Grow Rich. He knows reading is always a bargain. He will borrow thousands of people’s brains to turn his vision into reality. The Richest Man In Babylon will be put to shame.

Don’t date a man who reads. He is a critical thinker. He has seen different opinions through thousands of pages. Reading teaches him great analytical skills. Every little challenge will have a strategy session from The Art Of War. If you have a tough decision, he might have the solution. And you will have to learn to accept help from others.

Don’t date a man who reads. He has a sense of perspective. He knows his problems will never be harder than the people in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

Don’t date a man who reads. He will always want to try new things. He will always try to get more out of life. For him, life is like an adventure like Around The World In Eighty Days. He will teach you how to Choose Yourself.

Don’t date a man who reads. His inner child is more alive. The Age of Innocence will never come to an end. His curiosity and creativity will survive through school. And he won’t stop asking questions to find The Art Of Happiness.

Don’t date a man who reads. He can be empathetic. He is used to putting himself in every character’s shoes. He will be there to pick you up when you fall. He knows Attitudes of Gratitude: How to Give and Receive Joy Everyday of Your Life.

Don’t date a man who reads. He will like to challenge you like A Call To The Wild. He will give you book suggestions that will drive you crazy. He will push you hard to grow, and to share the journey with him. Nothing will be nice and smooth like a bed of roses. But the more you open your mind, the more things you will discover. And the more you read, the more you will realize you know nothing. And you won’t be able to stop chasing new ideas.

Don’t date a man who reads. You will have a hard time reading him. The key to his heart lies below thousands of books. You will have to read things you don’t like. You will read things that will make you cry. You will read things that make you comfortable. That is part of every relationship. It will take real effort to meet his Great Expectations.

Don’t date a man who reads. Because he is a storyteller. Everything through his eyes will look magical. One day he might tell your children The Greatest Story Never Told.