So my new entrepreneurial fantasy is to start a web site that specializes in matchmaking boys who read novels and girls (and boys) who would like to date boys who read novels. If you read the very smart comments posted to my entry about how boys apparently don’t read fiction any more, you will see why this is such an opportunity. [Update: Sadly, none of the comments survived the transition to the new platform.]
My original plan was to buy the domain www.boyswhoreadnovels.com. But when you look at that the world “whore” just jumps out at you, doesn’t it? And that’s just not the vibe I’m going for. The obvious alternative is www.boysthatreadnovels.com but that’s not grammatically correct and we can’t have that. Then there’s www.novelreadingboys.com, but it just doesn’t have the same zing.
The other problem is what to do about, as the Beach Boys said, the “two girls for every boy” problem. If you believe the statistics, boys who read novels are rare, which is of course why the girls I know want to date them. But maybe if you’re just upfront about the skewed fishpond to begin with, that’s honest enough, isn’t it?
I can see the entries now. Vital stats, instead of being height, weight, blah, blah, are: the last book you read, the last book you abandoned, the book that’s been sitting on your bedside table for a year. Photos not allowed unless boy is pictured with book.
Lily used to make fun of me because I used to have a special fondness for boys who read books while walking down the street. It was like they couldn’t be bothered to stop reading while getting from point A to point B, which, come on, is very appealing. Members of this sub-group, however, are usually not reading novels. They’re usually reading Marx. And that’s just not attractive.