I could always tell a relationship was doomed to fail when I discovered a guy I was dating didn’t read. The longest relationship I’ve ever had besides my marriage was with a non-bookworm who only occasionally read, and even then it was comic books. Three years of me trying to work him up to graphic novels, hoping from there he’d at least transition to genre paperbacks. Any book would do as long as it didn’t have pictures. Based on his favorite films, I even bought him books as gifts, the spines of which remained dishearteningly uncreased.
This, my friends, is why you should never settle.
I’ve always had a hard time understanding how someone could not enjoy reading. How do these people live without books? How do they walk around like everything is hunky-dory, like one of mankind’s greatest inventions doesn’t even exist? “I don’t like to read,” they proclaim, sans shame. What?!
Savages.
As for physical attraction, there are few things more compelling to me than a man with a book in his hand. A man who loves the written word as much as I do and has the library to prove it. That is hot. Scalding, actually. One of my favorite ways to spend a romantic evening at home with my bookish husband is between the sheets, respective tomes in hand, reading late into the night. I'm really not hard to please.
Speaking of romance (and being hard to please), today is the day some of us have been waiting for since the Christmas trees in retail stores were supplanted by giant red hearts back on January 2nd. Valentine’s Day. Twenty-four hours of all love everything. If you’re like many American’s, you’re probably planning to hit the supermarket parking lot after work for a handful of helium and some flowers. You may even have dinner and a sexy hotel reservation on deck for the night. But may I suggest an alternative — or at least an addition — to the stuffed bear and box of candy? This Valentine’s, instead of booking a room, why not try booking with your beloved? For less than the price of a dozen roses and a box of truffles, you and your boo could have two copies of the same book plus many (free) hours of quality time to discuss what you’re reading. A book club for two. How romantic is that?
Although my husband and I mostly have different tastes in reading material, we sometimes choose books to read together. There’s just something about reading in tandem that makes me feel like we’re sharing much more than the titles and authors we like. Reading together guarantees our nightly conversations go beyond how our days went or what we had for lunch; we find ourselves discussing how we’re enjoying the book and speculating about how it will end. There’s also the aforementioned intimacy of reading together in bed, and the playful competition of peeking over at each other’s pages to see who is further along. Once we’ve finished our book, we make a date to discuss it over a meal, an outing we both look forward to.
I don’t know why I endured so long all those years ago in a relationship with a man who wasn’t a reader. Especially since everyone knows 97% of couples that read together, stay together. Okay, that’s not a real statistic. But it should be.
So what do you say? Will you be hitting the sheets books tonight? I know I will.
Enjoy your Valentine's Day, lovers.
