…That little Tiger doesn’t
Picture the scene: There’s me propped up on cushions, cat on my lap, book in hand, happily flipping pages interspersed with the odd chuckle or sigh or tsk. On the next sofa is Mr Whisperer, joystick in hand, silently working out with on which building the enemy may be hiding behind, waiting, waiting, and BAM! fingers and thumbs flicking madly – down they go!
Yep, you are witnessing a fairly normal evening Chez Whisperers: Miss Piggy lying in her own filth – OK, not as disgusting as it sounds but I do regulary have it pointed out to me that I would rather read a book than load the dishwasher after dinner (erm yes – and the problem with that is….?) and Mr Tiger hunting down his prey. Both of us are relaxing after a days work.
But Pigs and Tigers don’t go together do they?
Actually yes. Mr Whisperer (Tiger) and I (Piggy) have been together for eleven years and I put that down, in part, to our extra-marrital activities (that being books and XBox games, people!). Only occasionally has Mr Whisperer looked over at me and said “would you have prefered to be with someone who reads?”. OK, so when I joke around I say I should have married a millionaire with his own library but in reality, I like that the books and the reading are all mine. The thing is, we share almost everything: Mr Whisperer is my best friend as well as my husband, we go everywhere together and I like it like that. But the reading……that’s mine!
Is yours a Piggy or a Tiger?
The reason I got thinking about this is ‘cos loads of people who I have spoken to lately (who are as obsessed about books as I am) who have partners who don’t read and it struck me as funny. When I say don’t read, I mean picking up a book is their equivalent of me wanting to walk through a pitfull of snakes.
Does your partner read / or is as obsessed as you are about books? Do tell!
we re similar i read amanda my wife dosen’t really she reads a few true life stories and a odd novel but not a lot ,all the best stu
Boof and Virginie M =”The Likeness”……!!!!
My hubby does not read or just one book a year(ahem,not even) , when we go on a trip, I ask him if he would like a book to read there, he chooses one according to my advice and when we come back, I make fun of him ….”you aired one of our books again, darling !!!”He does not even touch it.
My hubby is a TV person…….When he watches TV, I read.
By the way he always teases me about my obsession with books.
Ahh, just another thing we have in common! My husband takes a token book on holiday with him too – maybe once every 2 years he might actually read one round the pool but that’s it. I always pack him a couple that I know he’d love but they always come back with us in the same condition, LOL!
Boof alias Miss Piggy, I have a wonderful pretty magnet that I love on my kitchen fridge , it says in French:
“Seules les femmes ennuyeuses ont un intérieur impeccable” which would tranlate into :
“Only boring women have a spotless home” or something like that..
isn’t that incredibly true ?
I also tend to procrastinate with my books, reading instead of…..
I love that fridge magnet! My sentiments exactly! :O)
There is nothing wrong with reading a book when the house is filled with unwashed dishes, clothes waiting to be ironed (argh- ironing!) and dogs who desperately need to take a bath!
I’m not married but I can tell you with pride (or shame- you pick) non of the guys I dated were readers (if you don’t count the sports section of the paper). Did it bothere me? Nope, I think, like you, I like having that to myself
Books rule over ironing any day! Pah, no contest!
I love how guys think that sports sections count as reading!
OH Boof, my hubby and your hubby could be best of friends… He is a Tiger as well. Video games to him are like books to me. And it works very well for us too
Maybe John and Dave were separated at birth, Lori?
Nope – hubby does not read. Oh – unless you count endless Equipment magazines and project plans. (We own an excavating company.)
Sigh
No, equipment magazines definitely do NOT count, Sheila! And project plans don’t sound very relaxing either
I also have a tiger for a husband. He never reads. Reading is my thing. It hasn’t hurt us any so far (almost 11 yrs).
Ahh, this is proving my discovery that book-obsessed people are not partnered with other book-obsessed people.
Is there anyone out there who has a bibliophile partner?
Intriguing…I’m not currently married, but in my marriages, neither guy was a reader.
I think you’re right. I wanted that to be MY thing!
Maybe you should go for a reader next time, Laurel?
I had an ex who swore he loved to read and wanted me to recommend books to him, so I did, masses of them, and he never read any of them. And I didn’t mention it, because he was busy, but then when we broke up he said he had always been unhappy because he felt like I disliked him for not reading. Who knew?
My partner is not a big reader, he has his favourites like Ben Elton and then books about football and other interests. However, he does have to read journal papers for his work, does a lot of research and is probably sick of reading come the end of the day.
I wouldn’t mind it though if we did curl up with a book each come bedtime maybe just once a week – I think that would be cute. Apart from the reading we do pretty much everything else together, spend all day every day together so can’t complain can I – 10 years and still going strong – that’s what’s best about being in love with your best friend
tolkien doesn’t read books, but i don’t mind. he geeks out on the computer, checking out the new operating system that is out for linux machines, or googling about server monitoring, or something that sounds equally fascinating (i.e. boring) to me.
it’s a nice fit, much like your piggy/tiger fit.
Wow, this was the subject of a post on another blog today!
I am happily married to a non-reader. He has his e-bay obsession, I have my books.