Does your significant other enjoy reading?

RLB · Aug 23, 2007

The "one in four Americans hasn't read a book this year" thread got me thinking... How important is reading to your SO? Or how important is it to you that a potential SO be a reader?

Here's my little story:

When my husband and I first started dating, he hadn't read a book for entertainment in years.

Early on in our dating relationship, I went away to travel for a few months. When I got back, he had read the entire LOTR trilogy. Later he told me it was 'cause he knew how passionate I was about reading and he wanted to be able to talk to me about it.

He's been reading ever since and in the past few months he's read more books than I have, which means I need to start catching up.

But when he told me about that, about reading LOTR because he knew how much I loved to read, I knew I was gonna marry him, even if he never picked up another book...

(and I really, really need to cultivate an interest in basketball)

Ziljon · Aug 23, 2007

No, the wifey doesn't read fiction.
She doesn't play my compositions either (I'm a composer, she's a pianist) so go figure!

JennaGlatzer · Aug 23, 2007

RLB, that's cute!

I've been with my husband for close to 8 years now. He's read two books in that time: Frank Baron's What Fish Don't Want You to Know, and a parenting book titled Pop Culture. He also reads fishing and parenting magazines.

Other than that... it's hopeless.

I thought it was adorable when he referred to the parenting book as "my book," as in, "It says in my book..." or "My book said I should..."

JoNightshade · Aug 23, 2007

The #1 reason my SO is my SO is because he reads voraciously, and quite often enjoys the same reading material as me.

Actually one of our first discussions was about the book A Canticle for Leibowitz. This is a book that both of us were convinced nobody else in the universe loved or even liked. And then we got to talking and realized that we both adored it. And then eventually we realized that we adored one another.

Honestly, even when I was single I knew there was no way I could ever have gone for someone who didn't read constantly. On the other thread I said I didn't have a problem with other people not reading, but... it is so central to my life that I couldn't imagine not sharing that with my partner. There are a few key points that I think are important for a couple to have in common. One is religion, another is ideas about parenting, and for me... reading.

Kudra · Aug 23, 2007

In all the long-term relationships I've had, the men have been of the forget-the-book-watch-the-movie variety. Or "I'll read it if I can learn something from it." The last one read 30 pages of a book, and said, "Aren't you proud of me?" Um, no.

Lately I've been meeting people who've been heavily into books, and it's so great being able to talk to them about stuff. I think I'm beginning to lean towards the won't-date-'em-if-they-don't-read category.

Uma · Aug 24, 2007

My hubby reads, but has comletely different taste than I do. But as he's putting the final touches on his dissertation I know he hasn't had a chance to read in months.

We need to invest in a few more bookshelves over here. We've outgrown ourselves.

PS. I loved A Canticle for Leibowitz, but I'm 99% sure my hubby never read it.

Gary · Aug 24, 2007

My wife does the audio book thing, but seldom reads anything on paper any more. I'm the exact opposite, as I only enjoy audio books when on long drives. Even on trips, I carry a paperback to read in the motel at night.

Siddow · Aug 24, 2007

My husband is a bathroom reader. Every once in a while I'll take all the Money and Fine Woodworking magazines out and put in a copy of Best American Short Stories or Glimmer Train. By the time he figures out what's going on, it's too late and he has to either read them, or go without.

CaroGirl · Aug 24, 2007

My husband is an obsessive fiction reader. He'll read nothing for months and then he'll find a book that really captures his interest and he'll do nothing but read it until it's done. Most recently, it was the latest Harry Potter, but he's also done that with The DaVinci Code, Pillars of the Earth, Oryx and Crake, the Douglas Adams books, and so on.

Devil Ledbetter · Aug 24, 2007

The first time I went to DH's house and saw his bookshelves, I knew I'd found my soul mate. Thirteen years later, the bookstore is still our favorite date destination.

We're both heavy readers of non-fiction, philosophical and political books.

Cav Guy · Aug 24, 2007

My wife never used to read until I got her interested in first horror and then fantasy. I don't read either genre, but I wanted to find a way to get her interested in reading. Now she reads quite a bit, but our reading doesn't often overlap.

And she still hasn't grasped the "book is always different from the movie" rule.

johnnysannie · Aug 24, 2007

Oh, yes, my husband reads a great deal. Same as others have said here, if he wasn't an avid reader, our relationship most likely would have never advanced to marriage.

Jack Nog · Aug 24, 2007

My wife reads sporadically. Some of our best nights are sitting in bed together and reading.

We don't however have the same taste in books. She reads some chick-lit, some literary fiction, and some of the Oprah book club stuff. She's actually in a book club, but I call her a cheater because she never gets to the end of the book, and then just skips ahead.

I will say that she has a far more active social life than I do. While I push aside things to be able to read, she is just the opposite. Even with all of that, I can say that she read more than seven books last year (not counting the 12 from her book club) and probably around ten so far this year.

I actually used to be pretty rigid in what I read. Stuck to fantasy and horror, straying only a little. But because of her tastes and the other genres she's read, this has intrigued me and I've started reading different books because of it. Although I can read a 500 page horror/fantasy novel in two to three nights, on of her 500 page novels can take me a week+ to get through.

Harper K · Aug 24, 2007

My husband's always been a reader, but he didn't become an obsessive reader until he and I got together 6 years ago. Back then, I was never not reading something, and he picked up the same habit.

Actually, I'd argue that he's a better reader than I am. A couple times in the last few years, I've lost my reading habit completely. In 2005 I only finished a handful of books, whereas he kept reading like it was his job. I got back into reading 30 - 40 books a year mostly thanks to his urging.

We don't read exactly the same stuff -- my favorites are classics, litfic, and YA, whereas he tends to be a SFF and humor reader -- but our tastes overlap at Neal Stephenson, Douglas Coupland, and David Sedaris.

Uma · Aug 24, 2007

Jack Nog, your story reminded me of the book I just finished

"My Cleaner" by Maggie Gee and the ex-husband drives his ex-wife nuts by often saying something like "I have to go, I have a book to read."

I found myself thinking "I don't use that excuse half as much as I'd like to.

Sunnyside · Aug 24, 2007

Mine reads, but she doesn't necessarily enjoy it. She loves detective novels and has a fascination with non-fiction about serial killers and the Holocaust (okay, I'm making her sound waaaay weird, but she's really not!) and loves reading quirky memoirs -- Augusten Burroughs is her favorite (and my favorite memoirist, as well, actually).

We actually have this discussion all the time because my wife is a chemist -- and memories of college chemistry class actually give me post traumatic stress disorder -- while I was an English major -- and she can't imagine anyone voluntarily choosing to read and write for a living!

Azraelsbane · Aug 24, 2007

Yup, the husband and I are both voracious readers. We moved not that long ago and we had such a fun time picking out new bookshelves! Yeah, we're dorks, I know.

In the end we bought three large ones and three small ones, and now we have to go get more, because we still have too many books for them.

We do, however, have very different tastes. I'm huge on fantasy, paranormal romance, and mainstream fiction, but my husband likes nonfiction. He's just recently started enjoying fantasy (since he started betaing for me), so maybe now he can read some of the books I've bought and save us some time between new bookshelves.

acharity · Aug 24, 2007

Hmmmmm, nope! My boyfriend doesn't read ^^

When we first started dating (well, a few months in, anyway) he did buy a book that he thought was interesting and then never read it! I found it... hmm, I'd say around July of this year covered in dust, lol... I ended up reading it. I recall that it was okay... but not much more. I can't even remember if I gave it back to him!

The most he reads are car/electric manuals and instructions (half the time not even those). But I don't mind, I guess... we each have our own hobbies ^^

Kate Thornton · Aug 24, 2007

My DH reads, but it is specialized. He gets a bee in his bonnet for, say, Italian fiction and reads it like crazy. His tastes are not as indiscriminate as mine...

scarletpeaches · Aug 24, 2007

I couldn't get involved with someone who wasn't a reader. Because it's such a huge chunk of my life, if I couldn't talk about books with my S/O, what else would we discuss? And the simple fact is, I don't want to get involved with someone who doesn't read - if he were a writer too, bonus.

I've 'clicked' straight away with quite a few people who are bookworms - it's as if we see something in the other and immediately fall into being comfortable in each other's company.

Nothing romantic yet, though. It's hard to meet single, heterosexual, reading men in a city where binge-drinking, drug taking and lack of respect for women is the norm. I guess the men of this town are into less cerebral pursuits.

Kudra · Aug 24, 2007

scarletpeaches said:
It's hard to meet single, heterosexual, reading men in a city where binge-drinking, drug taking and lack of respect for women is the norm. I guess the men of this town are into less cerebral pursuits.

Not limited to your town. Not at all. *sigh*

Robin Bayne · Aug 24, 2007

My dh doesn't enjoy reading at all, and won't read anything outside of work stuff except articles about golf. He's never read any of my work--in fact he was really excited when I got an audio book contract for my time travel novel (unfortunately it was cancelled.)

san_remo_ave · Aug 24, 2007

My husband does read a lot, just not as much as I do. There are some authors that we are both fans of, but generally our reading material overlaps maybe 10% of the time. I think his appreciation for a good novel make him sympathetic to the time I put into my own writing.

AceTachyon · Aug 24, 2007

The soon-to-be-wife reads about as voraciously as I do, although I think I have a slightly larger collection of books. (Maybe 50 more than she does.)

We both read SF and Fantasy, although she does more Fantasy than SF. I have gotten her to read Moon's Vatta's War novels and she liked them.

Dave.C.Robinson · Aug 24, 2007

We both read, I read more right now than she does. She reads mostly romance/romantic suspense and fantasy with some sf thrown in. I like sf, fantasy, some thrillers and lately I've been into graphic novels.

Does your significant other enjoy reading?

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