Is It Possible to Live with Someone with Starkly Different Tastes in Books?

[keilj]

Perhaps this has been discussed in a thread before, but is it possible to live with someone who has completely different tastes in literature?

To use an extreme example, what if you were into Dickens and she was into Jackie Collins. Wouldn't you eventually clash over this?

I live alone, so I have no real frame of reference for this. Although I dated a girl once who had terrible tastes in movies (of course her tastes were bad, not mine:p)

[Lulim]

Why shouldn't it be possible? It is possible to live with someone who has completely different tastes, in books, in movies and in music. It is difficult when it comes to different tastes in furniture and decoration, but worse of all is different taste in food, that means different meals to prepare. -- Or, each prepares his own food.

[Whifflingpin]

My wife has managed to put up with me for over thirty years, and her literary tastes are quite different from mine.

[Hurricane]

My roommate hasn't read a book in nearly ten years (she's 20). Somehow, we survive.

[Katy North]

Yeah it is... you just don't talk about it as much as other things.

[Helga]

I would be happy if my boyfriend read anything no matter what I just wish he would have an interest in any kind of literature...

[Michael T]

Listen... If I can put up with living with someone of the opposite sex, then just having a different taste in books is a doddle! :argue:

:biggrin5:

[*Classic*Charm*]

One of my roommates reads the Vampire Diaries and romance novels and we still manage to get along fine. It pains me when she says things like "Is Anna Karenina good? It's on Oprah's Book List and I usually agree with Oprah". Palm-forehead. I conceal my pain, and say "Yes, yes it is."

[JuniperWoolf]

I'll be honest, I don't think I'd be interested in someone who didn't have the same interest in books that I do. The love of literature is just one of the major things that I look for in a mate. It's a big pre-requisite.

I could LIVE with someone who didn't love literature though. My dad doesn't read, and I live with him right now. It's never come up.

[keilj]

One of my roommates reads the Vampire Diaries and romance novels and we still manage to get along fine. It pains me when she says things like "Is Anna Karenina good? It's on Oprah's Book List and I usually agree with Oprah". Palm-forehead. I conceal my pain, and say "Yes, yes it is."

ha

Sound like the consensus is "it can be tolerated"

But, once I posted this thread, I realized that, if it ain't books, it will be something else that you don't see eye-to-eye on, yet you can still live with it.

[hoope]

having a difference in book taste .. could really be a small issue regarding aspect of sharing life with someone .. There are many things you should consider when choosing your other future half.. However i believe love can handle all that .. if one loves you , then he \ she should be ready to love anything you like...
This isi my point of view.. As for me i dislike going through philosopy & reading those books drives me crazy .. coz sometimes i feel getting lost..
But i am being so interested now.. and i read in it . just for the sake of the person i love.. It isn't that bad afte all..
Do you see my point.. even if her taste is bad in choosing movies . that wouldn't matter for each one has his own way of seeing things.. You should accept ppl as they are. If it's love .. then be ready to love everything in the peson even if its Jackie Collins.

Regards

[applepie]

It's certainly not that big of a deal. I read extensively of just about everything. My husband... well he just doesn't really read much at all. He reads more now, military fiction, but we're at an entirely different level in this area. I read a average book, say 300 pages, cover to cover in an evening. My husband reads it over the course of a month or so. He's much more likely to pick up the newspaper or a magazine, or even just watch the evening news. It doesn't make him impossible to live with, but it also means he has little interest in what I'm reading. Everything else more than make up for that :D

[prendrelemick]

After 30 years of marriage, I can answer YES. We are both readers, but the only book I remember us both liking was "Rebecca".

I think reading is a kind of private time anyway. Its like having your own space within a relationship.

[Katy North]

My husband and I both like reading, and we do have some similarities... we both read the Jim Butcher books and other things, though he is more interested in military sci-fi or rpg based books than literature and non-fiction which is my forte. It doesn't really matter what we're reading though, because it's just fun curling up in bed together with our books.

[blazeofglory]

Everything opposite attracts, doesn't it?

[applepie]

Everything opposite attracts, doesn't it?

So true I suppose :) Me and mine are opposites, but then he keeps me from being too much of a dreamer with my head always in the clouds. I make sure he doesn't take everything in life so seriously. Sometimes you really just have to roll with it, adapt, and take joy in the bright spots.

[Niamh]

Having different tastes is good. it would be so boring if you liked all the same stuff.

[blazeofglory]

Having different tastes is good. it would be so boring if you liked all the same stuff.

The saying goes: opposite poles attract. If we think along the same line we will prove boring in a few days

[tonywalt]

I was with the same girl for 6 years and she only read The Sun. She had the common touch, whereas I am more strategic with broad strokes.

[KCurtis]

It is important to me that my husband has a love and desire to read literature, which he does. We have different tastes in authors, but that's okay because we both appreciate great writers. I recently persuaded him to read my favorite author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, he did, and he loved the book. It's also important that we have the same tastes in much of the music we listen to and we do. However, I like some hip-hop, he doesn't. That's okay- I wouldn't like it if our tastes were exactly the same. We have different tastes in food, food is not as important- to us.

[Emil Miller]

I was with the same girl for 6 years and she only read The Sun. She had the common touch, whereas I am more strategic with broad strokes.

Are you speaking about the British tabloid newspaper here? If she were a page three girl, I suppose the six years might have been justified.


http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/174/imagesxxxxxxx.jpg

[prendrelemick]

Me and the Mrs have completely different tastes in books, but we've rubbed along together very nicely for 32 years so far.

[JuniperWoolf]

Dave and I have the same taste in books. We have the same taste in pretty much everything actually, if we didn't I don't think I would be going out with him. I remember something from my second year psych course about how people tend to choose mates who have the same taste that they do, because we seek validation.

[YesNo]

My wife and I don't share the same taste in books, although at the moment we do share a Kindle because neither of us use it that often. We don't have the same mother tongue nor can we even read all the languages the other can.

It's been two decades now that we have tolerated each others' differences and often learned to enjoy what the other likes to do.

[TheFifthElement]

I remember something from my second year psych course about how people tend to choose mates who have the same taste that they do, because we seek validation.
That's interesting, because I do the opposite. I tend to prefer people who are unlike me because being surrounded by those sorts of people is more likely to support my personal growth. I can learn from someone unlike me, they can help me to see things differently. But someone who has the same tastes as me...well that'd be like hanging around with myself. I do that all the time. Boring :D

My husband is pretty different to me. He's a sciencey/engineering/computery/logical type person where I'm more airy fairy and interested in words and concepts. Woolly things. But this is good because as a unit we're complementary and in some respects neither of us expects the other to automatically agree or see things the same way, so we tend to discuss/explore rather than argue. It's kinda nice. Lovely really.

Books-wise I have no competition for being the reader in the house and that suits me fine. I don't want his manuals or sci-fi cluttering up my bookcase.

[ClaesGefvenberg]

Perhaps this has been discussed in a thread before, but is it possible to live with someone who has completely different tastes in literature? Absolutely. After all, there is no need to force books on each other. I imagine that differing TV tastes may be a tad worse:


Listen... If I can put up with living with someone of the opposite sex, then just having a different taste in books is a doddle! :argue::biggrin5:
:lol: :iagree:


That's interesting, because I do the opposite. I tend to prefer people who are unlike me because being surrounded by those sorts of people is more likely to support my personal growth.I agree. Besides, I am not convinced that I could stand someone quite like me :ihih:

/Claes

[qimissung]

I don't know yet. I think I would prefer it, but I'm not sure it would be a deal breaker. I think I wuld love to share a love of reading and it would be a fine thing indeed if we were to be able to discuss them. I

I would also love to have someone go to the movies with, and who shared the same taste. I actually think that might be a tiny bit more important to me.

But I think as long as we had something interesting to discuss I would be fine. A love of talking I don't think I could do without. :D

[JuniperWoolf]

I agree. Besides, I am not convinced that I could stand someone quite like me

That's what I usually see, people who share that opinion. I was talking about the theory with my friends after class and Steve said: "like hell, I hate myself, I don't want to be around me all the time." I guess that's what the numbers say, that like seeks like, but that doesn't seem to be the popular opinion of the people I've spoken to.

I feel more solidarity with people who like the things that I like, they make better allies. Friends, mates, same thing.

Haha, heeeey, I just realized that I already posted in this thread a couple of years ago:


I'll be honest, I don't think I'd be interested in someone who didn't have the same interest in books that I do. The love of literature is just one of the major things that I look for in a mate. It's a big pre-requisite.

It's nice to see that you and I agree, past-Robin (it's always kind of creepy when that happens).

[cacian]

Is it possible to write the perfect book? hehe..
Yes to answer yourpost.The more different from each other you are the more interesting the conversationds and the 'plots' get.
Similar taste, similar everyhting is as boring as brewing a tea pot watching it steam.
If you like spark you need conflict and the more different you are from each the more fun you should get.
I speak from a voice of experience.
You could not get more different and alienating then me and my partner.
I love every minute of it with everyhting that it entails.;)

[cacian]

Are you speaking about the British tabloid newspaper here? If she were a page three girl, I suppose the six years might have been justified.


http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/174/imagesxxxxxxx.jpg

that is not page three girl that is plastic surgery and photoshop hit duet.
it is as good as plastic versus technology get. The rest is just a dellusion.

[Emil Miller]

that is not page three girl that is plastic surgery and photoshop hit duet.
it is as good as plastic versus technology get. The rest is just a dellusion.

Not unless Wikipedia have got it wrong.

Keeley Hazell From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search
Keeley Hazell

Born Keeley Rebecca Hazell
18 September 1986 (1986-09-18) (age 25)[1]
Lewisham, London, England
Height 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)[2]
Hair colour Dark brown
Eye colour Hazel
Measurements 32F-24-36[3]
Website
www.keeleyhazell.com

Keeley Rebecca M. Hazell (born 18 September 1986)[1] is an English former Page 3 Girl and glamour model.

Early lifeHazell was born in Lewisham,[1] grew up in Grove Park,[4] and attended the Ravensbourne School in Bromley.[1] Her mother, Amber, is a dinner lady and her father, Roy, is a window fitter; they separated when she was thirteen.

Career Modelling At 16 years of age, Hazell left school to work as a hairdresser. Her work colleagues persuaded her to try her luck at modelling. At 17, she competed in The Daily Star's "Search for a Beach Babe" contest and won. Still not old enough to pose on Page 3, she went to study fashion at Lewisham College.[5] But later, a friend told her about The Sun's Page 3 Idol competition. Despite some initial uncertainty about entering the contest, she submitted some photos. She was eventually chosen the winner in December 2004. She won £10,000 worth of "sexy clothes" and "a one-year membership of the Rex cinema and bar". Another part of Hazell's Page 3 Idol win was a one-year exclusive glamour modelling contract with The Sun.[2]

Hazell was regularly featured in Nuts and Zoo. She has been on the cover of The Sun's 2006 and 2007 Page 3 calendars, in addition to her own wall calendars, the 2007 edition selling 30,000 copies in its first few days of release.[2]

[Pensive]

Where I can't really say anything about the role your taste in literature plays to set you up with your potential match but once the relation has been strengthened I haven't ever heard of any being broken due to a difference in literary taste. I have known several breakups all owing to very different reasons.

So I would like to think it is possible. For some reason I always like it when two people different from each other can live in perfect harmony.

[Idril]

I think it's a great opportunity to go outside your comfort zone and read books you normally wouldn't. I've read far more American novels in the several months Basil and I have been together than I've read in the last several years. :wink5:

[KCurtis]

I think having the same taste in movies is good, because husband and I watch them together, and also music, which is really important to us. Books are different- we can discuss them, although we may not have the same taste in them. But we don't read them together anyways. It's' nice to have some interests that are wholly are own. It's also fun to argue about literature and movies, etc. I would hate to agree on everything, that would be boring and what would we talk about? I think it's good to have differences. As long as they aren't extreme ones, such as moral differences, which would be a real problem. It's been 30 years for us, and the only thing I've been able to change in my husband is convincing him to un-register as a Democrat and become an Independent! :cheers2: