Right here:
http://thehairpin.com/2011/07/favorite-books-of-the-secretly-jerky
I’m only surprised there wasn’t a barb aimed at Lord of the Rings!
Meh.
American Pyscho isn’t a “secretly jerky” book, it’s irredeemable shit.
I love Hunter S. Thompson’s books and spent the entirety of my twenties and a good chunk of my thirties unreasonably high - nevertheless I am an unrepentant straightjohn with a family now. I still love HST (and PKD, while we’re at it) in a way that is entirely subordinate to the way that I love my wife and children, thank you very much. Hell, I still love drugs even if my familial obligations mean that that the chances of having six of seven free hours to dedicate to their use is rare to the point that it’s purely academic; I’m pretty sure that means I love my family more.
Atlas Shrugged - OMG, people who enjoy Ayn Rand are irredeemably selfish pricks who shouldn’t be bothered with… Wow, this is big news! In 1936. Next.
Catcher in the Rye - someone who think you need to identify with Holden Caulfield in order to appreciate The Catcher in the Rye probably hasn’t reached puberty themselves.
On the Road? You’re really going to diss On the fucking Road?
Sorry, anyone born after 1930 who had the good fortune of inheriting or acquiring a soul must understand the importance of On the Road. Seriously, you can read this book all you get out of it is “This is written by a ‘commitmentphobe’?” You need to die in a fire, as soon as possible. It’s okay to say this is remote from your experience, if it is - but to denigrate On the Road is the same as denigrating A Tale of Two Cities - it requires stopping up your ears with wax, and plucking out your eyes. It needs that you deny everything beyond the tiny horizon of your experience and close yourself off to humanity and divinity. In short, it takes a willfully ignorant ass.
I am clearly not the the target audience for this blog. Maybe I’ll send the link to my twenty-year-old daughter to see if she laughs. (Of course, she enjoyed **Fear and Loathing **so she might not be the target either.)
So you disagree? 
It’s going for the funny; I wouldn’t read much more into it that than. The point is that the blog is written by a woman, Molly Shalgos apparently, and she is commenting on the type of man who is a particular fanboy of some books. It’s not that it was written by a “commitmentphobe” it is that fanboys who hold up that particular book will (according to her) harbor fantasies of being on the road, no commitments, etc. and therefore be a jerky boyfriend.
Or, more briefly: dude, you got whooshed.
As for LoTR: a fanboy of that book wouldn’t be a closet jerk, but more of an open geek
As WordMan says, I thought the article was cute, not profound.
The whole premise is, your favorite book(s) tell potential lovers something about you, and sometimes that something is “RUN, don’t walk.” If you’re an adult male and your favorite book is anything by Ayn Rand, most sane women would be well advised to tell you “I’m washing my hair Friday night… and Saturday night… and any other night you might want to ask me out on.”
But of course, we all have our own dealbreakers. I’m long since off the singles market, but I’d be VERY reluctant to date a woman who thought that, say, Dan Brown is highly enlightening.
There are undoubtedly books and authors YOU’D be disturbed to see on the shelf of a person you were interested in pursuing. What are they? Tell YOUR story… “If I see ____ on a woman’s bookshelf, I just KNOW she has major issues with ____, and I’m getting the heck out of Dodge!”
(Given that this is the SDMB, I’d sort of expect to see The BIble mentioned a lot.)
On The Road, like Catcher In The Rye, was good when I was 17. Now I’m twice that age, not so much. Interesting how Lord Of The Rings stands up to adult reading better than those “classics”.
I had to Google Meg Cabot. Meg Cabot.
Seriously, Hunter Thompson is Meg Cabot for dudes?
That’s the kind of crazy you don’t often find outside of a political thread.
The article is about the favorite books of guys who can get a girlfriend in the first place.
(d&r)
Wiki to her - I couldn’t get your link to work.
Princess Diaries, Gonzo Style: “I was on the outskirts of the kingdom I would come to rule when the drugs started to kick in…”
The consistent thread with all of those books is that most of them seem to be books that most of us outgrow as we get older and more mature. I kinda liked Catcher in the Rye growing up, but now that I’m an adult, I think Holden is a whiny, spoiled little shit. If I saw these books, I’d me more apt to think that the guy just doesn’t read. I wouldn’t read too much more into it.
I still like *The Catcher in the Rye *a lot. It’s only book I’ve re-read multiple times. But, I don’t and never did relate to Holden Caulfield. That is to say, I never dealt with depression or pervy adults or anything that heavy in my youth. I like the book more for its humor than its insight into teenage angst.