Hands up everyone who hates Valentine’s Day.
OK, now hands up everyone who doesn’t actually care a whit about Valentine’s Day. That many? All of you can go look at these.
The other two of you can stay here. 
We wanted to suggest books for Valentine’s Day that wouldn’t make you want regurgitate your heart shaped bon-bons. We almost managed it too! Read on for books about all sorts of romantic love and how we deal with it.
Books to read aloud to each other
Nick Hornby returns to his roots – music and messy relationships.
This funny and touching new novel thoughtfully and sympathetically looks at how lives can be wasted but how they are never beyond redemption.
Emma and Dexter have a one night stand after graduation. As they lie in bed afterwards, Emma wonders what their lives will be like at 40. They part ways, but get together for one day each year, on the same day, for the next twenty years. So far, so 90’s Bridget Jones rip-off.
Ah, but this is so much more. It is only towards the end of the book that Max and Emma realise how much they love each other. And then everything changes in an episode that will induce even tears in the most hardened of macho men. As well as being perfectly observed and highly readable, this book is achingly, seethingly funny.
Other People’s Love Letters” 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See
Does what it says on the cover and more .
There’s a “what happened next?” section at the back of the book to satisfy your curiosity!
Dear Old Love: Anonymous Notes to Former Crushes, Sweethearts, Husbands, Wives & Ones that Got Away by Andy Selsberg
A collection of anonymous love notes to the ones who got away — or were left behind.
Like a pitch-perfect little poem, each entry paints a complete picture with just a handful of apt words
Come Together by Celia Rees and Lloyd Jones
For about two years I pressed this into the hands of every single customer who was looking for something to read after they were done with [insert chick lit title of your choice here]. It’s written in two distinct voices, and Rees and Lloyd never managed it again, but here they perfectly evoke the feelings of two people falling in love without being twee or coy or sacharine.
Valentine’s Day Every Day
Love Notes: 100 Ways to Get Kisses, Cuddles and Some Really Great Sex
A sweet and sexy collection of colorful tear-out love notes to share.
Nothing keeps a relationship fresh like finding irresistible, playful new ways to start something nice and naughty. And this pad full of perforated notes makes it easy to heat up your romance. Just tear one out, present it to your sweetheart (or “hide” it where it’s sure to be found), and watch things get started.
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert
Picking up where her bestselling memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” left off, Gilbert details the extraordinary circumstances that surround her love with Felipe, the man she swore never to marry. Told with Gilbert’s trademark wit, “Committed” is a celebration of love with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails.
Poetry
Poems froma wide range of poets to suit every taste, on the many aspects of romantic love: from love at first sight to the ‘truly, madly, deeply’ of infatuation and on to the ‘eternally’ of love that lasts beyond the end of life, along the way taking in flirtation, passion, fury, betrayal and broken hearts.
Whether writing of longing or adultery, seduction or simple homely acts of love, Carol Ann Duffy brings to her readers the truth of each experience. Her poetry speaks of tangled, heated passion; of erotic love; fierce and hungry love; unrequited love; and of the end of love. These poems are alive to the sounds of modern life, but also rich with the traditions of love poetry.
Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match!
Why Him? Why Her?: How to Find and Keep Lasting Love by Helen Fisher
This new book provides a new way to understand relationships, whether you’re searching for one or eager to strengthen the one you have.
Become Your Own Matchmaker: 8 Easy Steps For Attracting Your Perfect Mate by Patti Stanger
If you’ve ever wondered “Where are all the good men, and why isn’t a gorgeous one standing shirtless in my kitchen mixing me a mojito?” Not to worry – Pattis is here to help you make that fantasy a reality, with one major addition: you’ll be sipping that mojito with a big, glittering diamond ring on your left hand.
The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene
This mesmerizing exploration of the most subtle, elusive, and effective form of power is a masterful analysis of civilization’s greatest seducers, from Cleopatra to JFK, as well as the classic literature of seduction from Freud to Kierkegaard and Ovid to Casanova. Robert Greene once again identifies the rules of a timeless, amoral game and explores how to cast a spell, break down resistance, and, ultimately, compel a target to surrender.
Picture books make excelent valentine’s cards
Guess How Much I Love You – Sam McBratney
Little Nutbrown Hare is trying to find an adequate expression of his love for Big Nutbrown Hare – ‘as high as I can reach’. But every way he stretches to show him, Big Nutbrown Hare can reach further. A perfect picture book that makes a sweet Valentine too!
The mother of a handsome prince tries to find a princess for him to marry and parades a bevy of blue-blooded beauties past him. However, he really isn’t keen on princesses. Luckily, one of the princesses brings her handsome brother with her… They all lived happily ever after. The End.
And then there’s this…
Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry
In this entirely invented auction catalog, the 325 lots up for auction are what remain from the relationship between the fictional Leonore Doolan and Harold Morris. Through photographs of the couple’s personal effects – the usual auction items like jewelry and the seemingly worthless items like Post-it notes and pyjamas - the story of a failed love affair emerges. From first meeting to final separation, the progress and rituals of intimacy are revealed through the couple’s accumulated relics and memorabilia. And a love story, in all its tenderness and struggle, emerges from the evidence that has been left behind.