My Book Reading Husband
is back!
One of the more peculiar aspects of my life before Dominic is that all my attentions toward boys were spent on specimens who did not particularly like to read. My short liaison with the out of fashion raver who had a copy of Marilyn Manson's biography in his frat house dorm room by his leopard print futon doesn't count (This was my taste in men at the time? The horror, I know).
Then came Dominic and his stacks of books lining the walls of his apartment and his smart contributions to discussions in English classes, and well--this on top of his dashing good looks?--I was smitten. I even forgave him for not liking Hemingway and thinking that Ethan Frome wasn't such a bad book, when everyone knows it's really the spawn of Edith Wharton temporarily acting for the devil.
When we first graduated from college I wasn't surprised that Dominic wasn't reading anything at the time. We both had just gotten off about a two year bender of doing nothing but cramming as many novels, poems, and plays into our heads as our major demanded, and also once he commissioned into the Air Force, he got busy quickly. That's what having a full-time job means for most people. But then an entire year passed, and then more than a year, and the only thing he'd read was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe all in one big gulp one Saturday afternoon. Now, I am certainly not blaming him for this change in his reading habits. Dominic has been EXTRAORDINARILY busy learning how to do his new job. His reading was rerouted to technical manuals and textbooks and he often worked long, long hours with no hope of much reprieve for months on end. But still, I missed the way we used to be in college, in bed together, each of us with our noses in books.
So, it was with a kind of feverish pleasure that I got to suggest books for him to take to survival school when he left a month and a half ago. Now he's back up in Washington and he's informed me he's about 50 pages into Everything is Illuminated, and I'm so excited that he's doing something nerdy again. I mean I love my macho husband who struts around in his flight suit and can fly a Cessna and eat pounds on end of buffalo wings and survive in the wilderness, but I seriously think he may have been moving beyond my league, what with no books to humble his manhood and make him appear sensitive and thoughtful. And I can't have him moving beyond my league because we're married, and it would do no good for him to one day wake up, look at me, and think, "Behold this mousy little book nerd sleeping beside me. Ugh, all that drool...I can do better than her!" and then dump me. I will not be dumped! YOU HEAR ME, DOMINIC?
Where was I? Right--but that's not the point. The point is that Dominic's reading again--and reading a really lovely book at that, and that makes me happy. Now we can both be really excited about seeing the movie when it comes out. With the hobbit! I mean Elijah Wood!
One of the more peculiar aspects of my life before Dominic is that all my attentions toward boys were spent on specimens who did not particularly like to read. My short liaison with the out of fashion raver who had a copy of Marilyn Manson's biography in his frat house dorm room by his leopard print futon doesn't count (This was my taste in men at the time? The horror, I know).
Then came Dominic and his stacks of books lining the walls of his apartment and his smart contributions to discussions in English classes, and well--this on top of his dashing good looks?--I was smitten. I even forgave him for not liking Hemingway and thinking that Ethan Frome wasn't such a bad book, when everyone knows it's really the spawn of Edith Wharton temporarily acting for the devil.
When we first graduated from college I wasn't surprised that Dominic wasn't reading anything at the time. We both had just gotten off about a two year bender of doing nothing but cramming as many novels, poems, and plays into our heads as our major demanded, and also once he commissioned into the Air Force, he got busy quickly. That's what having a full-time job means for most people. But then an entire year passed, and then more than a year, and the only thing he'd read was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe all in one big gulp one Saturday afternoon. Now, I am certainly not blaming him for this change in his reading habits. Dominic has been EXTRAORDINARILY busy learning how to do his new job. His reading was rerouted to technical manuals and textbooks and he often worked long, long hours with no hope of much reprieve for months on end. But still, I missed the way we used to be in college, in bed together, each of us with our noses in books.
So, it was with a kind of feverish pleasure that I got to suggest books for him to take to survival school when he left a month and a half ago. Now he's back up in Washington and he's informed me he's about 50 pages into Everything is Illuminated, and I'm so excited that he's doing something nerdy again. I mean I love my macho husband who struts around in his flight suit and can fly a Cessna and eat pounds on end of buffalo wings and survive in the wilderness, but I seriously think he may have been moving beyond my league, what with no books to humble his manhood and make him appear sensitive and thoughtful. And I can't have him moving beyond my league because we're married, and it would do no good for him to one day wake up, look at me, and think, "Behold this mousy little book nerd sleeping beside me. Ugh, all that drool...I can do better than her!" and then dump me. I will not be dumped! YOU HEAR ME, DOMINIC?
Where was I? Right--but that's not the point. The point is that Dominic's reading again--and reading a really lovely book at that, and that makes me happy. Now we can both be really excited about seeing the movie when it comes out. With the hobbit! I mean Elijah Wood!
posted by Kate at 8:32 AM
2 Comments:
Everytime that my life gets crazy or I have a bad day, I read your blog and it makes me smile. Keep up the writing. It makes me laugh. :)
C.S. Lewis (not only did not dump his wife but, rather, stayed by her side until she died) is one of my favorites although I prefer his nonfiction. A.C.
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