BibliovoRX: a remedy for your love bugs

Valentine's Day as we know it now is a day for romance, love, extravagant displays of affection, playing "who loves me best" with suitors, picking up lonely single people at bars, "singles awareness," gorging on chocolate, sneezing over roses, and drowning in a sea of over-commericalized pink, red, and white hearts everywhere you look.  Before Hallmark put its unique spin on the day, the Feast of Saint Valentine, or Martyr Valentinus the Presbyter, was intended to be a day honoring the martyrdom of a Christian priest during the reign of Claudius II in ancient Rome who was put to death for marrying Christian couples.  Many historians give Geoffrey Chaucer (a many greats-grandfather, I'm proud to say) credit for inventing the saint, as it was during the 14th century that February 14th became associated with romantic love.

I'm personally not a fan of the modern day interpretation of Valentine's Day.  Some might say I'm simply not romantic enough, but truth be told I just don't see why we as a society accept the idea that one day out of the year we should conform to societal (and debt-creating) standards of romantic gestures, e.g., truffles, Michelin-starred restaurants, and jewelry, when on the other 364 days we're perfectly happy to accept that cooking together, running errands for one another, having running inside jokes, and laughing until our ribs hurt are equally valid and undoubtedly more meaningful ways of showing love and affection.

Whatever your opinion, and whatever your unique situation, I have a book for you, O bookworm.  Timeless romantic poetry, how-to manuals, and guides to drinking away the holiday in style, under the jump.

If you're a traditionalist, and want to commemorate the occasion with something poetic, I'd suggest:
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda
This tiny book doesn't come from my "books to review" shelves for once, but from my own collection of books.  Of the poets I love best, it is Neruda whose words seem to evoke the most sensuous and earthy descriptions of love -- sometimes explicitly carnal, like Cuerpo de Mujer (Body of a Woman), sometimes wistful and yearning, like Inclinado en las Tardes (Leaning into the Afternoons), always gorgeous and full of vivid imagery.  In this volume, the original Spanish verses are side by side with W.S. Merwin's faithful translations into English, and the engaging and intelligent introduction gives the history of Neruda's life as a writer, complete with references to lines from his poems, the political climate of Chile, and his contemporaries in Europe and the Americas.  Alas, my favorite of his love poems, Love Sonnet XI, is not included in this book, but it can be found online in many places, including this site.  Side effects may include new-found appreciation for love poems, a new favorite poet, and a new surefire strategy for seducing that sexy lit major you keep seeing in your favorite coffee house.

If you've recently found yourself entangled in a new and exciting relationship, and you want to impress your paramour with a real doozy of a smooch, try:
Seal it with a Kiss by Violet Blue
Well known blogger, author, editor, and lecturer Violet Blue shares her know-how of lip-locking in her new book, Seal it with a Kiss.  In this book readers can find a quiz to help them discover their kissing styles -- Sweet Lips, Power Puss, Hot Lips, or Pure Delicious Poison -- and the best kisses to deliver for their personalities.  Ms. Blue also gives first kiss do's and don'ts pointers, moves to practice pre-kissing, a field guide to different types of men and what they generally like or dislike, ways to recover from bad kisses, kissing techniques for all levels of experience, best movie kisses, and kissing games.  It's easy to scoff at a book that offers help improving your kissing ability, but it's surprisingly interesting, and playfully written.  Side effects may include becoming an amazing kisser, trying out something new, blowing your new boyfriend or girlfriend's mind next time you plant one on him or her.

If you're all alone on Crass Over-Commercialization Day and all you want to do is crack open a beer and wait for the rest of the world to regain sanity on the fifteenth, you should definitely give this book a shot:
The Naked Pint: An Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer by Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune
If you're unhappy with the current status of your love life, and you'd rather have a pint of Pilsner than a pint of Cherry Garcia, The Naked Pint is the book for you.  Of all the days to drink because you're single, this is the one to treat yourself well.  Not just any brew will do on C.O.C. Day.  Make it something special!  Let beer sommeliers Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune teach you all you've ever wanted to know about beer but didn't know where to start, from the ingredients to the categories to the styles and beyond.  Would be beer geeks will learn to differentiate between wheat beers and witbiers, porters and stouts, and dubbels and tripels.  This book also offers do's and don'ts: brew ordering etiquette, how to drink your beer, sizes, specificity, sampling, when or why to send back your beer.  Perozzi and Beaune offer a few amazing beers to try -- the balanced, the quintessential, the unique, the iconic, and the rare.  And that's just the first chapter.  In the Neophyte section, learn about Pilsners, wheat beers, hefeweizens, Altbiers, and similar styles.  In the Sophomore, readers graduate to beers across the pond: red and amber ales, brown ales, bitters, Dunkelweizen, and stouts, to name a few.  The Devout takes it to another level with Trappist ales and beers to drink before you die.  The Promiscuous sexes things up with Bieres de Champagne and barleywine.  Once you think you've learned all there is to learn about types of beer, move on to the next section: it's all about collecting and storing beer, and even (if you're up to it) brewing some yourself!  So treat yourself to one of those quintessential beers on February 14th and kick back, secure in the knowledge that you may be single, but you're drinking better than most of your coupled up friends.  Side effects include understanding how different beers pair with different foods, how to brew several different styles of beer, and impressing people down at the local alehouse when you hold forth at length on your favorite new beer.