Finding a couple reading has become a rare sight now, but when you do spot one – either in a park, the boyfriend’s head on his girl’s lap, or in a cafe, as one of them reads to the other – you can see a different level of connection between them.
Reading books together is actually a great date idea when you feel like doing something lowkey but different and fun. Instead of starting a new show on Netflix again, try picking up a book to your liking and finish it together.
What if you like Agatha Christie, your partner likes Dan Brown? Does it mean it’s time to call the whole thing off? Absolutely not. On the contrary, both partners can broaden their horizons by indulging in each other’s interests.
Couple Reading Can Strengthen Relationships
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If you don’t know where to start and how to read together as a couple, firstly you need to decide on a genre and then the writer. There are many books couples can read together, and they don’t necessarily have to be all romance – authors like Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens tackle many serious topics while the ‘romance’ element is an underlying theme to the plotline.
Reading books together brings you closer to your partner without you even realizing it. Once you’re immersed in the story, you want to keep going back. Here are ways couple reading can enrich relationships.
Storylines can be used to flirt
Job, wealth, education, civility, humor, and of course looks, are the most visible aspects of the partner-seeking publicity campaign. The bookshelf is bared, as it were, at a later stage of the enticement game. This is where the flirtation can become fraught.
You show off your Shakespearean knowledge and want your partner to reveal a Jane Austen collection only to find general interest magazines in their collection. Conversely, you have only Phantom comics and your presumptive partner has a room stacked with metaphysical poets. What then?
Fear not. Books reveal a particular type of mind, but all minds expand at the urging of mutual sympathy. Won’t it be great to admit, “I can only tell you about my beloved Phantom comic episode. In return, I would love you to tell me about the plot of Pride and Prejudice.”
Intelligence is sexy
Couples confess to shyness and unmatched traits all the time: “I have never kissed. But I would like you to know that and teach me. I want my first kiss experience to be with you.” Why not similar candor in accepting a diversity of passion in reading? Research shows that people like those who share a bunch of characteristics – dressing sense, the level of education or bank balance. However, when it comes to reading, often, hasty presumptions are made.
Not everyone who enjoys pulp is a moron. Not everyone who can felicitously quote Homer is a phony or bad in bed. If you’re an avid reader, that automatically makes you attractive, the stigma of being ‘uncool’ is long gone. Intelligence is sexy.
You learn more from each other
Humans live life at multiple scales of emotion and longing. The key to finding a successful resonance with your partner is to recognize that you need not harmonize but appreciate a different intellectual register. And couple reading ensures just that.
Let us say you want him to learn about the boundless, ageless beauty of the 9th Symphony of Beethoven. Why don’t you make it the song of your intimacy? Read about the history of the song as the lead-up to the beautiful moments!
Tell him that the familiar European Union anthem played before football matches is part of the symphony. Playing that portion, Ode to Joy, will cause a surprise: “I have heard that! Didn’t know it was Beethoven!” Bang! High culture would have immortalized a beautiful moment in the relationship!
The example is gendered. It must be considered only an illustration because not all men are boorish! The relevant idea from the illustration is that high culture can enrich relationships and make a couple grow closer and higher.
But what is high culture, you ask? That is the beauty of such intractable questions! Why don’t the two of you set up a date in the library? Won’t that be fun? Discuss a little Plato while exploring singularly non-platonic joys. What an impressive date idea!
The theories are endless
Some books couples can read together are thrillers or mystery novels. Once you’re right in the middle of all the drama, you start conspiring theories and sharing them with your partner and vice versa. Watching how their brain works to come up with all the possible endings to the book is super hot and some people have even confessed to getting turned on.
Who knew reading books together could end in so many different ways…
Couple reading is a great activity to do together for both readers and non-readers. If you’re both well-versed with a particular genre, pick up a new book and explore this new, complex world together. However, if you’re a non-reader, choose a relatively simpler book to get started in the genre.
FAQs
Nick Hornby’s ‘High Fidelity’ is perfect for a romantic date night, and ‘At Home’ by Bill Bryson is perfect for couples who have just moved in together.
Reading books together will bring you closer and the storyline will create a sense of intimacy and a bond that becomes a journey that ends with the book.
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I feel books are one of the great ways to strengthen relationships. It’s actually good if you both read different genres, you can explore and know about different stuff. That would be more interesting. Right?
Beautiful article especially to young couples.
Oh, my hubby like books but only his educational stuff.Whereas I read everything .17 years together unchanged .he doesn’t disturb me when I read.That’s good enough!
Good write up! books definitely enrich relationships 🙂