Literary love connections

The Guardian recently published a piece on Border’s new dating site for bibliophiles in the UK, which promises to bring together singletons based upon their unique literary interests.

"Unlike other dating services, Borders dating is a great place to meet fellow book-lovers. In all the best fairytales, girl meets boy and frog turns into prince. If only real life was so simple! Sometimes fate needs a nudge in the right direction."

The Guardian is quite skeptical of this new service, as am I. Though books can play an enormous role in people’s lives, it’s difficult to imagine them being the cornerstone, or even the building block, of a relationship.

In fact, there’s a song that makes this same argument. Next Tuesday my wife has planned a party at a local bistro to celebrate the release of SOMETHING MISSING. Included in the online invitation was the song My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors, by Canadian act Moxy Fruvous, which created quite a stir among friends who were unfamiliar with the band. Creating music along the same lines as bands like Cake and Flight of the Chonchords, Moxy Fruvous’s songs tend to be amusing, satirical, and often tell a story, as does this one, about a relationship that is failing as a result of the woman’s obsession with books.

You’ll have to listen to the song to find out how the relationship turns out. But I have a suspicion that these Border’s love connections will not be very successful.