We had newlywed dinner guests a couple weeks ago. The husband is a Silicon Valley guy--he bikes to work, loves to read and is up on all the latest tech devices. The wife is from Orange County (a very wealthy subculture of LA). She's from three generations of fashion design and wealth. As they sat in our living room the husband exclaimed, "See, honey! A wall of books. That's what I would like to have." She looked at our bookshelves where we have every square inch filled with books. "Hmm...I could see that looking ok. If you had three books vertically and then three horizontally with a little pot or something on top of the horizontal books."
I looked at her in horror, "Jrex would KILL me if I tried to do that with the books." (I was minimizing the fact that I would hate it as well--poor Jrex, scapegoated again! He couldn't even defend himself since he was cooking at the time.)
"Why?" she asked in bewilderment. Her husband was staring at her in consternation at her confusion.
"Well, our books are meant to be read not just to be looked at and any pots would get in the way of functionality." Her husband nodded vigorously.
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Last night we ate a dinner of crackers and sliced cheese as we read in bed. I kept thinking of this other couple, where books and reading were not viewed as sacred by the wife. I felt so happy that we could just spend an evening reading together in mutual contentment. I guess it turns out that in our core values our marriage isn't so cross-cultural after all.
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John and I would often have conversations like this:
What should we do tonight?
I don't know . . . we could go to the movies.
Or go out for coffee.
Or go to the arcade.
We could call some friends.
Get some chored done
[etc.]
Or we could just go to bed early and read.
Yeah!!
Companionable reading was one of our most favorite activities. I'm happy that you and Jrex share that love.
Yeah, I'm with you on the books. They are meant to be read, not look pretty. It figures she was from the OC. :P
Three books vertically and three books horizontally just makes me think of Tetris.
Are you 2 supposed to be the geeks mentioned in the title of this post? Because I have never thought of either of you with that label! But if considering a quiet night at home reading qualifies someone as a geek, I guess I'll have to lump myself (as well as several good friends) into that category ;)
Oh, and an accessible shelf full of my books that I love is one of the things that makes me feel like I'm 'home'.
Reading in bed sounds so romantic. Unfortunately, my husband reads only newspapers. . .online. *sigh* That's so NOT romantic at all.
I have books all over my house and love to read often -- stacks of books on the nightstand, etc. Ah, can't imagine them not being there. I do have to say, though, in defense of "the wife" that displaying books in the way she suggested wouldn't prevent anyone from reading them.
Oh and hey, Rachel, nice cheap shot at OC. Right, like no one reads there. Oh, except there are three major universities in OC -- for starters. WTF?
Books as decorations?!
That makes me want to lie down on the floor and cry.
I'm lucky, I guess to live in a whole household full of readers.
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