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. (More book stories.)