Books of the interior

On Mystic Medusa's blog, there has recently been quite a funny conversation about whether or not one should hide one's more sexually explicit and or self help and or slightly wacko sounding books in the interests of getting a shag. All inspired by MM's experience of reading a profile on a dating site that said something lie “if you are a woman sitting alone in a house with three cats and a pile of self-development books move right along, I am not for you.”

I find the whole thing amusing for several reasons - firstly, I assumed every heterosexual non-wiccan non-RSPCA volunteering non-alternative therapy trained man probably thought something along those lines. I assumed that saying you were reading books on chakra cleansing was the dating equivalent of saying that you live with your elderly parents and sleep in a single bed with fairy print bed linen with your china doll collection, prefer wear elastic waisted skirts pulled up high and like to cut out kitten pictures from women's magazines (no offense to anyone who does those things). Ie slightly batty and very very unsexy. But what would I know. (Note - I do read books on chakra cleansing so I'm not actually passing judgement).

Secondly I think it's funny that there must be heaps of people out there censoring their book collections and trying to figure out what is 'public viewing' material and what gets snuck away in the bedside table. And who says what is embarrassing enough to be hidden away anyway?

On the topic of steamy books - I once had someone comment on the raunchier tomes on my bookshelves at the end of the night as a clunky kind of 'how 'bout it love?', which I thought was disingenuous.

Books as foreplay?
Books as signals of sexual preference and proclivities?
Books as social repellent?
Books as beacons of incompatibility for the internet dater?