We Need to Talk ... About Your Books

Forget toothpaste habits: Sometimes “a missed—or misguided—literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast," writes Rachel Donadio in the New York Times. Pasting your literary acumen all over your MySpace page has become the norm, and not a bad one. Just be prepared when “he hadn’t even heard of Pushkin!” becomes a rallying break-up cry.

One Salon book critic ditched her Ayn Rand-loving sweetie, and "let's face it—this may be a gender issue," says Donadio. "Rare is the guy who’d throw a pretty girl out of bed for imperfect taste in books." But after interviewing plenty of bookish types, Donadio ultimately found that "love conquers literary taste" most of the time.