Blogger: Michelle Ule
Location: The new main office in Santa Rosa, Calif.
My husband and I both majored in ENG in college. At UCLA, that meant ENGLISH. At Harvey Mudd College, that meant ENGINEERING. You can imagine how, theoretically, we could have been at cross-purposes in our literary choices over the years.
You’d be right to some extent, but not completely.
Prior to our marriage (a week after he was sworn in as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear engineering program), I spent a lot of time thinking about what book I’d take on our honeymoon. Oh, he knew I read all the time, but neither one of us worried about it since he, too, was an avid reader.
I hadn’t read War and Peace yet, and that’s what my bibliophile father was reading when I was born. No, that might feel too close to home. It needed to be something really spectacular, but nothing seemed a good choice. The Bible was obvious, but Gideon always left one behind in hotel rooms and so I didn’t bother.
I then made what to me was the ultimate decision to demonstrate my love for my new husband: I took no book.
My groom, meanwhile, received Lucifer’s Hammer, a hot-off-the-presses science fiction novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, as a gift from one of his groomsmen who actually had the book autographed in our honor as a wedding present.
There we were, holed up at the Benbow Inn in romantic, mist-filled Garberville, California, watching the redwoods shake in the rain. Terrific food, damp hikes, jigsaw puzzles in the lobby, winks and smiles from the staff–a lovely visit–until the groom pulled out his book.
I tried to be nice about it. I really did. But this was SO unfair.
“Why didn’t you bring a book?” he asked logically. “I can’t believe you don’t have one.”
“I thought you’d want to look at me . . . ”
Well, he did.
Eventually, we ventured out to the local bookstore in Garberville–a tiny hole in a redwood tree with three racks of dog-eared novels. The decision was tough, again, but not because of any romantic notions. They just didn’t have much of a selection.
Which brings me to…what would have been a good choice for two ENG majors on a romantic honeymoon in the redwoods?
Or, which book did you take on your honeymoon?
My final selection? CS Lewis–Perelandra. I don’t think I ever finished it . . . 🙂
Madame Bovary? I’m sorry. Just kidding.
I also have an husband who majored in Engineering. (I was the type who took upper level college English classes for fun.) Since my husband reads about subjects like the Second Law of Thermodynamics for “light” evening reading and I love a story, the only book for us to share together would have to be a biography. I’d read it for the story, and he’d read it for the technical details.
The only book we actually took with us was the Bible. If we go on a second honeymoon, I’ll take my Kindle. : )
Funny story. LOL
My husband didn’t take me on a honeymoon and I can’t imagine what would make a good honeymoon book choice. I just wanted to comment to tell you that you made me laugh.
Haha, I also packed no books on my honeymoon. My husband (who is majoring in Engineering, coincidentally!) isn’t a huge reader so I went bookless for him. 🙂
You never finished Perlandra? You weren’t sucked into the vortex of the next two? You a trilogy into a [partial] monology?
Oh, the humanity!
Benny Shannon wrote, “Why Doesn’t a Stone Have a Grammar of Physics?” and that might meet you both in the middle, but it’s a journal article, not a book. It does, however, mention Newton’s Law in the same breath as grammar and that’s about as close as you’re gonna get. Bookwise, at least.
You all are making me laugh!
I think Wednesday we’ll cover what turned out to be a great choice for an Engineer and a story teller . . . or at least a doting female. 🙂
When we married, my husband was in the midst of a double masters program. We brought his textbooks, and I read management theory to him as he drove. He thought that was very romantic because we were doing it together. 😉 Really, it wasn’t bad.
You made me smile. It was 23 years ago so I don’t remember the book I took on my honeymoon, but I’m quite certain I did take one or two, and got them read. Is there anything more cozy than being propped up by pillows in bed, lit only by bedside lamps, as you and your husband quietly read as night falls (fiction for me, hiking books for him)? Of course, my husband would say that this cozy scenario could be improved if we were both reading naked, but I picture us in warm pajamas…smile.
LOL. I’m married (41 years) to an Engineer who doesn’t read much more than the newspaper and a few magazines. No books on the honeymoon. I do remember that. We only had three days before classes started again and we’d have to dig into college textbooks. Now when we travel I usually take 4 to 6 books (thank goodness for an e-reader). He takes one–the same one several times and by the end of the year may have it finished!
I don’t think I took any either, but then the cruise ship had a library on it so we picked up a couple books there to read. 🙂 I do remember reading part of The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Laura Schlessinger… good honeymoon material, eh? (Actually, it’s a very good book.) Maybe he should have taken a book – I ended up seasick for a few days and he had to watch TV.
Michelle,
I love your thoughts on being married to an engineer. :o) Always funny, and so insightful. Are engineers and English majors really so different?
In our engineer-engineer house, life is fairly –as they said it at our marriage seminar before we were married– boring. No heated shoe-throwing matches, no red-in-the-faced arguments about where commas properly go. Just analysis (sometimes) of why a certain pillar structure is better for a determined weight-load, etc. And, I’m really glad we both love to read. Most of the time we finish the book …
🙂
xo JK
Loved your post. Very fun.
No books for me. We went trudging through the backwoods of Guatemala twenty or so years ago and there was story all around! Guns, wild parrots, enormous mangoes hanging from the trees… hippees, chickens on buses, the whole thing.
Our honeymoon was so long ago! Besides, since we eloped, there wasn’t time to plan what clothes to bring, much less what book to read. Impulsive people that we are . . . .
I just got back from a week in Kauai, however, with our daughter and found that David Baldacci’s Stone Cold was an excellent read.