Will I Meet My Future Husband in a Bookstore?

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working in a pop-up bookstore. For the last couple weeks, I’ve been imagining meeting my future husband there.

He walks in, tall and probably wearing plaid.

After handsomely pursuing the shelves for quite sometime (how is anyone that attractive while pondering?) he comes to the counter where I’m cutely reading a copy of Winesburg, Ohio. He’s buying On the Road, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and One Hundred Years of Solitude. Our eyes meet, the smell of old paper is all around us. We have the exact same taste in books. We’re soul mates.

It turns out we have the same taste in music and movies too. He sings me Bruce Springsteen and quotes Heathers. He also loves Mexican food and his favorite football team is the Steelers. We’re soul mates.

Or are we? Thinking about my dream man who likes all the same things I do, I had to ask myself do I want to date me? Eh, maybe?

A scene in 500 Days of Summer comes to mind. Tom (played by the oh so handsome Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is going on about how he and Summer (played by the lovely Zooey Deschanel) are so compatible because they talked about “Banana Fish” (I love Nine Stories, marry me Joesph Gordon-Levitt) and  Tom’s younger sister, played by Chloe Moretz, says, “Just because she likes the same bizarro crap you do doesn’t mean she’s your soulmate.”

So what are you saying, Chloe? Are you saying tall, Kerouac-Kundera-Garcia Marquez reading, and handsome isn’t my soulmate?

I think the lesson I’m suppose to learn from 500 Days of Summer is that just because a couple has a lot in common doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll have a great relationship that will last. In fact, being in a relationship with someone who likes all the same things as you might be kind of boring. I thoroughly enjoy arguing with guys who like different football teams then me. It can be kind of hot. (Not Ravens fans though. I really just hate you guys.)

But whenever I think about a guy who likes the Smiths, reads “Banana Fish” and looks like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, all my brain says is soulmate, soulmate, soulmate, soulmate, soulmate, soulmate. With JD Salinger as our witness, marry me on an alter of books!

So what do you all think? Do you think having a lot in common is a good foundation for a relationship? And if not what is? If you like exactly the same things as your significant other are you doomed for a boring, spiceless relationship? Do you think I’ll meet my future husband in a bookstore?

Image by Lee Ziesche