In an inspiring story out of Brooklyn, NY, 27-year-old Phaedra Singh was asked to list some of her “favorite books” and gave a laundry list of titles she was required to read for classes over the past 15 years.
Awesome! Any others, babe?
According to reporters at the scene, Phaedra appeared to be on a first date with a self-proclaimed “literary man.” When she claimed to be somewhat of a bibliophile herself, she clearly started racking her brain for every single book she could remember reading, which all happened to be books she dissected in various required classes and therefore had to know well.
“I’d say I love Catcher in the Rye,” she started, already grasping at straws. “Plus, The Great Gatsby, The Outsiders, you know. Don’t even get me started on The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.”
Upon being asked to describe the plot of Sound and the Fury, she bumbled through a mostly-incorrect recollection, which included plot points that simply do not exist, such as “then they all go golfing” and “pretty sure once the guy kills himself, he comes back to life?” which she deftly phrased as a question.
According to scientists, 80% of her “favorite books” come from one global literature class she took her freshman year of college, before she realized you don’t actually have to do all the readings.
“OMG, plus Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality Part II,” she continued, starting to speak faster and list more because she was clearly nervous. “And, of course, Cold War History Factuals by Harrison et. al.”
The same scientists confirmed 5% of her favorites come from her thesis that was loosely about “sexuality and the Cold War.”
By the time her date stopped her, Phaedra had listed most of the syllabuses from every English class she’d taken and a few readings from her statistics coursework, such as The Art of Statistical Thinking and Statistics for Business.
“It’s just got such rich dialogue and some really interesting info about statistics,” she finished, after which her date half-heartedly promised to “check it out some time.”
At press time, Phaedra realized she hadn’t reciprocated the question, and asked her date what some of his favorite books are.
“Oh, you probably don’t know them,” he said confidently. “I can’t choose between two favorites. Have you heard of Infinite Jest and Fahrenheit 451?”
