Guest Post – Lisa and her Book Boyfriends

Today, I’m joined by the lovely Lisa from www.lisatalksabout.com for a guest post all about book boyfriends. I have to say a big thank you to Lisa because without this great and fabulous post, I’d be up the creek without a paddle. Thank you for putting on a cape and coming to my rescue!

So, what are we all waiting for? Let’s read all about book boyfriends because they are the best thing since sliced bread.

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Finding the Right Book Boyfriend
It can be said that as a nation, nay as a world, that when it comes to relationships – to begin with we can be a little bit superficial. Ok, I realise that this is a mass generalisation and I have just placed us all in a homogenised box; pigeonholing each and every one of us…but go with me on this. Basically, we judge people by their looks much like the proverbial book cover.

You would be hard pressed to find yourself being initially attracted to a person’s creativity or warm heart. They are the sort of thing that make you fall in love with them (say around 20% way into the book, just after the hero has been introduced and done something seriously cute to make us swoon) just in the same way we pick up our books because the cover appeals to us not because of that line on page 127 that made our heart skip a beat because someone has verbalised exactly what we were thinking so much better than we ever could. This is why creating book covers is a lucrative industry.

However, it did get me thinking. What if we likened gentlemen to the books we read – nope I don’t mean finding a real life book boyfriend (those poor fools would never be able to live up to the written version) but a sort of guide to how you would categorise the men in your life.

The Short Story – quick and exciting with an intense build up, the short story is the one night stand of books. It is all fun and games whilst it is happening but after the wham-bam-thank-you-mam of that hot passionate and steamy encounter you very rarely hear from him again. Sure there might be a spin off tale here or there or he might creep up in another book as a surplus but novelty character but the short story boyfriend isn’t going to be the one you introduce to your family nor will he b the big love of your life.

The Classic Novel – There is something oddly comforting about the heaviness of a classic novel such as War and Peace or Les Miserables. The weight in your hand feels like you are achieving something when you read it…even if it does take you over a year (or in some cases longer) to finish. There is a sense of achievement and of hard work involved. This, my dear bookish friends, is the equivalent of the off-on-off-again boyfriend. You know the one. The boy who you have been with intermittently since your dating life began. He is comfortable, reliable and the ease and which you dip in and out of each others lives makes you lazy. Sadly, he is the boy who makes you ask the following questions when you have a crisis of faith: a) is this really worth it? (This is the question I asked after reading about Vronsky’s love of his fields in Anna Karenina) and b) if it hasn’t worked out with him, why do I keep going back for more? (It has been sixteen years and I still haven’t finished Anna Karenina…I will…probably). As comforting as this person is, he is not the book for you!

The YA Novel – A very popular choice of book boyfriend. He is the equivalent of post high school Zac Efron. He is the inappropriate crush, the nostalgic look at what we all wished we had had when we were younger. Sadly, as an elder generation (I’m talking 80s babies here) we are the equivalent of bookish cougars by falling in love with these kind of boys…ah but they remind us of our own youth. We will look upon them fondly but realise that we are at different points in our lives and whilst age ain’t nothing but a number baby that sometimes it does count.

My advice? Stick with the following type of guy.

The Chick-Lit – With many a chick lit we encounter many a chick lit hero; the one guy whom the writer has poured her (or his) heart and soul into creating. Striving for those perfect-frisson creating moments, that sunset windswept kiss and that happily ever after that, like it or not, we all secretly want. This is the book boyfriend you want. Keep striving for him ladies (or gents), wait for your meet cute, laugh along with him; fall in love but most of all check out his page numbers – anything over 350 pages suggests he has staying power.