Day 450 - My Husband, Who Doesn't Read

So, when Anthem and I were dating (which, as most of you know, was a bit of a fiasco) we once got into a massive argument about reading. I wanted a man who would, at least once a year, read through a favorite book of mine and write in the margins and give it to me for Christmas. It sounded so romantic to me! And Anthem was straight up, "That is not me. That is probably never going to be me. Are you going to learn an instrument and write me an album every year? Of course not, and I don't expect you to." Needless to say, I threw a fit, and he was right. Remember yesterday when I blogged about single culture? Add to the list of things that needs to be revised is 'weird expectations based loosely on film and cultural ideas of romance that are actually self absorbed demands so that we feel better about ourselves' cause that's what that was. 

I realized, with a little help and prayer, that Anthem was (and is) exactly what I needed. Reader or not, he's incredibly intelligent and we spend many a road trip discussing little more than science, fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. It's... pretty much the best. And I absolutely adore him for it. His lack of obsession with books has really opened my eyes to a whole other side of intelligence, to creativity, to imagination, to *gasp* interaction with the real world. 

Now that we've got that established, I have actually been rather lax about reading and/or straight up not doing it for years now. I was once an avid reader, and I have wanted to be again for a long time. The only problem is that I sort of lost my taste for fiction. When I do read, I read philosophy, theology, and history. All of which are great, but none of which truly propelled me back into 'avid reader' status. I read books every once in a great while. 

Until my non-reading husband changed all that. And to be clear, it's not that Anthem is against reading, far from it. It's just that because of the way his brain is wired, reading is difficult as it requires mental energy to focus in just one place for extended periods of time, and often requires quite a bit of stillness. Neither of which come easy to him, especially outside of worship. And that's when he had the genius idea of audio books. Every morning he goes to work at 4am for roughly five hours. He was desperate for something to keep his attention while he was sorting boxes. So we went to the library to pick out an audio book and see how he liked it. Well. He loved it and asked me to go to the library to get more so he wouldn't run out. Since then, he's been blasting through books. 2-3 a week. 

On top of which, they have him so lively, and so inspired, that it overflows. He just has to talk to me about all that's going on in the book worlds. And one series he loved so much that he insisted I start reading it, and that we buy all the hardback copies of it because it's going to be a favorite of our children. 

I'm in love. The series is called "The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica" and has 7 books, the last of which comes out this November. It is truly one of the best series I've ever read, or at least so far it is. I'm only on book two. But I felt something inside click last night when I could hardly put the book down and go to sleep. I knew that my husband, who is not an avid reader, had gone and reignited the spark in me to become one again. 

Just goes to show you, I guess.