I can't remember what grade I was in when I first started highlighting, but I remember my teacher looking down at my now entirely fluorescent yellow page and saying, "You're only supposed to highlight what's important." I replied, "But this is all important." That's how I felt reading The Lover's Dictionary. I wanted to highlight everything. I only meant to read the first few pages, just to see what it was about, but I didn't end up closing the book until I was done. Each entry provides a picture into the life of our couple. You start off with one picture... 
 ...but by the end of the book, you have this: 
 But not as cheesy. 
 One of my favorite entries: 
 exemplar, n. 
 It's always something we have to negotiate -- the fact that my parents are happy, and yours have never been. I have something to live up to, and if I fail, I still have a family to welcome me home. You have a storyline to rewrite, and a lack of faith that it can ever be done.