This Friday we celebrate St. Valentine’s Day by asking each other: Do you and your sweetie share the same taste in books?

C.V. starts off with “When we first married my husband didn’t read books at all. 

Now after 30 years, I have him reading but we definitely don’t read the same types of books. He likes to read about the World Wars, American History, and investment books.  I prefer historical fiction, fantasy, and always love a good mystery. His To Be Read pile is always short. Thankfully I have a Kindle or I don’t know where I would store by To Be Read pile. But when it comes to movies and mini-series, he it right there beside me.”

Kathryn shares that “We do not!

He prefers nonfiction to fiction. He also flips to the back of a book to find out how it ends. Can you even imagine? I often don’t read the book jacket just in case it gives too much away.

After we became engaged, we decided we’d each read a book that the other person recommended.  He chose The Zen of Motorcycle Maintenance for me and I picked The French Lieutenant’s Woman for him. We politely finished our assignments but decided we’d stick to our own literary lanes afterwards.

That said, I love hearing about what he’s reading, and he humors me when I want to read some particularly well-written passage out loud to him. Forty years since we first recommended our favorites, we can’t help but continue to share our good reads.”

Ana says “I married a gearhead.

He has an incredible spacial sense and is fascinated by how things work and sound (he can diagnose a car or bike problem by careful listening), but he’s not much interested in reading fiction. I’m more fascinated by how people interact, and so I am the fiction (primarily historical) reader in our family.

Sometimes we meet in the middle because—as long-time students of American history—we both enjoy reading historical non-fiction.”

Katie shares that “I am a voracious reader of all kinds: historical fiction, romance, The New Yorker, National Geographic, anything you put in front of me.

My hubby is a newshound. He doesn’t often go in for narrative arcs, and seems to be bored by things that don’t bring a deeper idea along with the storytelling. So while I have an ever-taller stack of TBRs keeping me up late at night, he is often up early, reading through the world’s news on his iPad. 

We’re pretty darn good at a pub quiz.”