Courting a book-lover is no easy feat. Yes, their affections can be bought for the price of a nice hardcover, but regular pickup lines just aren't going to cut it with them. They've read too much literary nonsense, and their romantic expectations are high — if you're not proposing to them on a windswept moor, it's not good enough. But never fear: Here are some literary pickup lines stolen directly from the classics, to impress that cutie you're always running into at the independent bookstore.
Now, I'm not promising that quoting Henry Miller to a stranger at the library or charming literary coffee shop is going to win them over right away. Book-lovers can be a skittish folk. Complimenting them in public might cause them to panic and fling a latte in your face as they flee the charming literary coffee shop, book in hand. But if you can show the object of your affection that you read widely (or at least, read carefully curated lists of literary quotes on the internet), they just might want to get to know you better.
So here are a few quotes to break the ice with your well-read crush. Just remember, for your own safety, try not to chat anyone up while they're reading:
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and A Song of Despair
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
― Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence
― Gabriel García Márquez, Love In The Time of Cholera
― D.H. Lawrence, Complete Works
― Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
― Jane Austen, Persuasion
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
— Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago
— William Goldman, The Princess Bride
— Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
—William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
― Toni Morrison, Jazz
― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals
Images: Focus Features; Giphy (17)
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