Literary deal breakers

Does the saying "opposites attract" hold true to every situation? If you're a book lover, wouldn't you rather go out with someone who's also into books? Wouldn't it also help to be seeing someone who's tastes in books are somewhat similar to yours?

I can't imagine spending time with someone whom all I can talk about is the weather, algae, jpeg vs. gif, or Britney Spears. I'd probably kill myself if I can't talk about books with my S.O. Having said that, I do consider it important that we somehow like the same books. Or, more importantly, that we get one another interested in our preferred reading matter.

I've been romantically involved three times, with the first two ending in very unfortunate scenarios. (The one I'm in now, I believe, is for keeps. We met at a bookstore. And the first time we met, future S.O, was holding a Murakami! I was totally into Murakami 5 years ago.) Looking back, I now know why there was never a chance of those two relationships succeeding, and I feel that it has something to do with reading tastes (or lack thereof).

We've all heard about deal breakers. They're omens of some sort, whether the date is headed into something potentially serious or if you're better off with a dog. For book lovers like us, deal breakers can come in two ways -- either the potential S.O. isn't into books at all or he/she is so into a specific type of genre that we wouldn't even bother reading.

In my first relationship, I was with someone who was not into reading at all, and I mean reading in all forms. That was doomed from the start, although why we lasted for 2 years I'll never know. The second one was into books, the religious kind. I've nothing against those; I've actually read quite a few. The deal breaker for me happened during my birthday when I received 5 books about the Virgin Mary and when this person said, "You should try these, and not the trashy ones you're always reading." What. A Load. Of S--t. We lasted for 2 years, too.

If I were single, I would definitely be on the lookout for these literary deal breakers every time I go out on a date. Here are some of the books that would send me fleeing to the next parallel universe:

1. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
2. The Alchemist (or all the books by Coehlo for that matter)
3. Any book with a cover depicting Fabio ravaging a woman
4. Finnegan's Wake
5. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
6. High School Musical novelizations

How about you, dear reader? What would be your literary deal breakers? I really want to know. Write them in the comments section.