5.07.2008

A Book Race

Let's share a good date this time, shall we? We've focused a lot on the negative - let's [for Jeanette's unborn son] share a positive what-to-do type story. I know not all of you will get into this, but I think it is fantastic. Another date story from the wonderful Olivia. [To read the last one, go here]
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This is one of the best dates I've ever been on, and we ended up dating for about 3 months. This would have been in 2001, before I moved to L.A. He was in medical school and we met at a coffee house one afternoon. He was very eager to hang out with me and I had a lot of fun with him, so we hung out as friends for a couple of weeks before I agreed to a date. He wanted to impress me so much on that first date that he kept the plans a secret from me. Here is what we did for a date:

He picked me up in his car (I agree, a guy should pick a girl up or offer to drive to her neighborhood) and drove me to Barnes and Noble. He walked me inside the front of the store and turned to me and said "OK. Go find your two top favorite books you've ever read. Grab one copy each. Meet me over in Starbucks in 20 minutes with those books.
Ready, set, go!!" and then he raced off to one section of the store. So I ran over to another section and began searching for books.

20 minutes later I walked over to Starbucks where he was already sitting down at a table for us. He had bought me a cup of coffee (he had paid attention to how I "take" my coffee) and 2 pastries- one for both of us. He also had two books on his lap.

So as I settled in, a bit flushed from the flurry of the book race, he said "OK, now tell me about your two favorite books and why you liked them so much. And then I will tell you about my two favorite books. And then I will buy one of your books and you can buy one of my books. And then we can read them and discuss them in a couple of weeks."

So we sat there, drinking coffee, explaining our favorite books. He bought the first Harry Potter book and I bought the book "It Takes a Worried Man: A Memoir". We both really liked reading the books and it was fun to talk about them over the coming weeks.

That was a fantastic date. :)
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Let me just end up by saying: wow. Go ahead, use this one guys. I won't tell your girlfriends/wives/significant others that you read my blog. How creative. I love it. Creativity, amazing. And secondly, brilliant on his part because he SECURED the second date. Did you see that? Genius. Plus...any guy that learns my coffee drink will be leaps ahead in wooing me ;-)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

very cool.
You and your coffee...whoever woos you, best get that order down right, amen?!
How gracious of you to give all the single men out there permission to steal this idea.
I may use this with my wife...oh yeah, very important to "date" after you get married.

Magnetic Monkey said...

There is a fatal flaw in this system, I must sadly announce. I actually did something similar to that with Christy when we started dating. She really didn't get my enjoyment of comic books (yes, I know, I just outed myself as an even bigger nerd but whatever).

So I asked her to read this collection of good Spiderman stories I had. She said she would but she wanted me to read a book she really liked. What did she give me? Les Miserables. The unabridged version. Is that really a proportional amount of reading??!?

Anyway, just to say be warned you might try this and get stuck with a 1,500 page French tome. :)

Unknown said...

Wow, this is a clever idea! I like it! I suppose it might not work on every girl, but any girl who doesn't like to read probably isn't for me.

And Eric, I don't feel sorry for you at all. You should feel lucky - Les Miserables is the best book ever written. Well, maybe just the best novel ever written.

Olivia Hein said...

i think the book race does two things:
1) it helps you realize that the guy is trying to impress you by thinking up a creative date while sealing a future date
2) helps you realize whether you and the guy are compatible. if he would have brought a Dean Koontz to the table and told me it was his favorite novel of all times....well, maybe it's just not meant to be.

:)

Magnetic Monkey said...

Number one movie in America? Based on a comic book. What's CNN running a full story on RIGHT now? Comic books. What are faster and more enjoyable to read than novels? Comic books. Dis not that which ye have not read!