You know how sometimes you read a book and it is so captivating that it takes over your entire life? Me, too and I’m willing to bet that every voracious reader knows what I’m talking about. Books, at least the really good ones, have the ability to transform our daily lives and broaden our horizons. It’s not uncommon for mysteries to leave us paranoid or for romance novels to leave us nostalgic or hopeful. But have you ever stepped back to wonder how your reading habits affects the people around you?
Let me explain. My husband always know what type of book I’m reading based on my attitude. For example, if I’m reading a book about unfaithful husbands, I will explain to my own that I don’t appreciate his other girlfriend stealing my things and leaving the house a mess. If I’m reading a mystery, I’m prone to waking him up in the middle of the night to check on the noises downstairs (usually it’s our own dogs). If I’m reading a romance novel, I’ll reminisce about the good ole’ days or complain that we didn’t meet when his dog knocked me over, left me breathless, and left me opening my eyes to his face looming over mine (I actually wrote a post about how romance novels ruin romance a while back). And lastly, if I’m reading a comedy, I will think I’m hilarious and my snark goes a tad overboard.
I should probably also point out that I’m very sarcastic, so while these comments are in jest, they can be overwhelming. Honestly, I don’t even realize that I’m doing it. 99% of the time, he will respond to my ridiculous questions and comments with, “What the heck are you reading and when will it be over?” (unless I’m reading about food and am inspired to cook, which is rare and he is on board with). Smart man that he is, he has never asked me to stop reading a book, but he has on several occasions grumbled a request for me to finish it sooner rather than later. In one particularly unfortunate incident, I read a book about an unfaithful man with my husband’s name and he made sure to carve out some time for me to finish the thing as quickly as possible.
Voracious readers know that their current read can impact their relationships. I'm one of them. Click To TweetThe following are a few books that I throughly enjoyed but that my husband asked me to read a little bit faster. Luckily, he’s very understanding and while he may not have known the extent of how reading shapes my life when we met, he certainly knew by the time we got married. If he happens to read this, I’d like to extend my sincerest apologies and gratitude, but I’d also like to remind him that he has bought me some of these books so really it’s his own fault. That said, I bet you can figure out what type of book I’m reading right now, right? Oh, and if this has ever happened to you, please feel free to share your story in the comments.
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
I didn’t love this book and it made me fairly cranky. I powered through because I had heard great things but I couldn’t connect with the characters and it left me apathetic about life. I was interested in almost nothing and was annoyed by people, in general. It took longer to read than it should have and I was uninterested in most things and definitely spent more time in my pajamas than I should have.
The Men Who United the States by Simon Winchester
This book is filled with fun facts and tells the story of the United States from an infrastructure standpoint. I found it fascinating and was texting my husband all sorts of random facts. This may not sound so bad but when combined with the bombardment of of places I now HAD to visit, I may have exceeded the appropriate texting-him-at-work limit.
Dataclysm by Christian Rudder
The founder of OK Cupid wrote a book about everything he has learned from the data on his dating site and boy did I have things to say about it. I spent a lot of time analyzing our hobbies and how we met, not to mention attempting to predict our marital success based on our Facebook friends lists (we passed that test, by the way). It was a lot of unnecessary speculation and, I’m sure, rather annoying for him to listen to me harp on about how the data may indicate that we’re not as happy as we think we are and perhaps we should join to see if we’d be matched to each other.
Every Book by Nora Roberts
Okay, this isn’t a particular book but every single book by Nora Roberts gets me in a tizzy. Most Roberts books follow a formula: woman flees hardship, finds safety in a small town, and meets the perfect man only to have her past come back to haunt her. This means that her books leave me lamenting the fact that we didn’t meet in some spectacularly tragic way or getting cranky about the fact that I don’t come home to rose petals strewn across the hall every day and that clearly he doesn’t love me enough. Ridiculous, yes, but nonetheless the truth.
Now it’s your turn – what books have impacted the relationships in your life?