Ah, Valentine’s Day! A special time of the year when sweethearts do what sweethearts are supposed to do: throw money at each other and make the people who work with them nauseous! But no, really, I like Valentine’s Day. It took me a good 10 years to start getting behind it, eschewing my black clothing and glowering persona for a, you know, positive attitude.

Now, as my gift to all of you, here is a list of 5 Valentines for Writers: things to watch, listen to, enjoy and appreciate for it’s important message about twue wuv.

1. (500) Days of Summer: Stop shrieking! I hear you out there. “This isn’t appropriate! They say in the first five minutes that it’s not a love story!” While that is true, I feel that this movie is the epitome of a love story’s caricature: the sweeping joy, the disgusting infatuation, the devastating falling apart and then…hope.

Also, the soundtrack is pretty amazing.

2. The Fault in Our Stars: I recommend the audiobook, as I really enjoy listening to Kate Rudd read to me. It’s a cancer book, with all the things that make a cancer book a cancer book…there’s even a cancer book in it! Pretty meta, right? It’s YA, but it’s so beautifully written that through about half of it, you forget. And that sounds like a way to go, but…uh…yeah, you won’t actually stop reading/listening anyway. It’s that good.

I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.

3. “The Bed Song” by Amanda Palmer: don’t get just this for your Valentine, because you’ll look cheap. Get the whole album it comes off of.

Sorry it’s a boring video, but just go with it.

4. Chocolate or an Edible Arrangement: who doesn’t love these things? I refuse to be clever here. They are delicious. People deserve these.

5. Eat, Pray, Love: either the book or the movie or both. Oh God, stop rolling your eyes. I’m actually not recommending this because of the love story snuck in at the end, although that’s nice. No, the real reason is that the deepest, most meaningful truth in this story is how much you are worthy of love. You deserve the right to be so in love with your life that you lose yourself in it.