Advice to the men out there replying to personal ads: If she doesn't ask for your picture, don't send it. The trick is to woo her before she sees what you look like.

In case, any of you were wondering what prompted the responses I got, below is the ad I placed. (Feel free to share it with the single men in your lives...)

A little (ok, a lot) about me:
• Last five books I read: The Effect of Living Backwards, Name of the Rose [re-read], You Shall Know Our Velocity, Foucault’s Pendulum [re-read], Reading Lolita in Tehran,
• Books I’m currently reading: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Middlesex, Friday Night Lights, The Namesake
• On my to-read list: Everything Is Illuminated, The Divine Comedy, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Kite Runner, The Devil in the White City, The Known World, The God of Small Things, Brothers Karamazov, Infinite Jest, War and Peace, Dreams From My Father, Will in the World
• Number of marathons completed: 1
• Number of half-marathons completed: 4
• Favorite distance to race: 10 miles
• Languages studied: French, Russian, Hebrew (Modern), Spanish, German, Greek (Attic)
• Favorite musical soundtrack: Evita
• Favorite musical to see live: Rent
• Favorite recent movie: Garden State
• Favorite musical artist: Ani DiFranco, through Alison Krauss is growing on me
• Favorite football teams: Northwestern Wildcats, Cleveland Browns, Indianapolis Colts (I have a crush on Peyton Manning)
• Favorite baseball teams: Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs
• Way I like my beer and coffee: very, very dark and rich
• Dietary preference: vegetarian
• Favorite food: Thai red curry with eggplant and tofu
• Favorite place to get burritos outside of Mexico: Freebird’s in Isla Vista, CA
• Favorite radio stations: Chicago Public Radio and WOXY
• Political leaning: liberal
• Current salary: not high enough for the work I put in, but more than enough to support my modest lifestyle
• Degrees: BA, MA, both in the same useless—though fascinating—subject
• Favorite physical activity: hiking
• Favorite city other than Chicago: London
• Favorite guilty pleasure TV show: Desperate Housewives
• 5’5”/130/blond/blue

What am I looking for? Given my less-than-perfect experiences with guys who were exactly what I was looking for, I’m going to decline to answer that. Instead, why don’t you tell me why you are who I *should* be looking for.