View Full Version : Best thing Today...I finally converted him!
I never once saw my husband with a book in hand in the five years we've been together unless he was getting it for me, he's always indulged me when it came to my books. When he showed up to pick my up on our first date he gave to me not roses or frilly stuff but two very beautiful books on shakspeare and old love poems. today while talking he asked if I had any good HF books without the bodice ripper theme that a man could read, you have no idea how excited I was, so I went through the titles and decided to give him the choice between The Greatest Knight by E. Chadwick and Here Be Dragons by SK Penman, only cause I think he would relate the William and Llwellyn. So we'll see....
diamondlil
09-06-2008, 09:01 PM
Can I recommend Master of Verona by David Blixt. Such a great book that I think that a man would like to read.
Kailana
09-06-2008, 09:19 PM
Yeah, I never date readers. The guy I am kind of seeing now asked me to order him a book online yesterday, though, that was pretty amazing! So, you know I had to order it... and a couple more to get free shipping... It was his fault, really...
It blew my mind, he'll buy every book I long for but then gripes when it's 12 am and my reading light is on so I never would have guessed in a million years that he'ld be interested in something like hf, maybe hot rods and motorcycles but not HF.
Divia
09-06-2008, 11:24 PM
Nice! Always cool to see men reading. I wonder if he would enjoy some NF too?
Ariadne
09-06-2008, 11:43 PM
When I first met him, my husband read mainly technothrillers (Tom Clancy etc), but he agreed to try some historical novels I suggested. Now he'll read every Jeff Shaara and Alan Furst novel as they appear. No way could I get him to try anything medieval, though. If it's not set in the 20th century or a war novel, forget it.
Spitfire
09-07-2008, 12:01 AM
Yeah my man is not a novel reader. Unless it's related to business. He mainly likes to read mopar magazines as he is currently restoring a '69 Dodge Charger. But, that is OK, it is not a big thing if we don't share the same interrests. He always asks me who I am fantasizing about now, King Henry the VIII? Ha, ha, I think that is the only historical figure he knows!
Margaret
09-07-2008, 12:20 AM
My husband was not much of a novel reader either, until he picked up Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park and it scared him out of his wits. Alas, neither of us particularly cared for Timeline. He's the only reason I read thrillers - he leaves them lying around the house, and if I get desperate for something to read and there's nothing else in the house, I pick them up. What's a sure-fire historical for people who love Tom Clancy novels and Jurassic Park? He tried Dietrich's Napoleon's Pyramids and didn't like it.
How great, Nona! That will never happen with my man. He's just not a reader and never will be! Sigh!
we we blend really well to begin with. He's into hot rods and motorcycles and I take part in that with him, because of him I fell in love with older muscle cars and bought my camaro, because of me he knows more about farming/ranching and horses and history then he would care to admitt. so I am lucky that we both take part in the others interest.
Rowan
09-07-2008, 03:27 PM
I would think anything Bernard Cornwell has written would be accessible to men.
Spitfire
09-07-2008, 03:37 PM
Actually a fellow came into our office the other day and he was toting a Julie Garwood novel (I think it was Saving Grace, not sure though). Shocked me! Not many men would be confident reading Historical Romance in public. I was too shy to ask him how he liked it, what I really wanted to do is recommend to him a better novel by her.
lol, I could never see my Ronnie toting a Julia Quinn or a Kathleen Woodwiss romance around. I suggested buying him B. Cornwell book to begin with but he said that he wanted to try something I already owned and since I chatter on about the ones I read, he knew I would have something for him.
we we blend really well to begin with. He's into hot rods and motorcycles and I take part in that with him, because of him I fell in love with older muscle cars and bought my camaro
He sounds just like my fiance! He's into all that stuff too and he can rebuild a 69 camero from scratch. To say that I have zero interest in cars would be an understatement! But we have lots of other interests in common like the outdoors and camping, hiking, etc. Personally, I like my reading time at night where I can be by myself, or at least it seems like that when I'm absorbed in a good book. We should get our men together and they can go talk cars so we can read in peace!! :D
Spitfire
09-07-2008, 08:35 PM
We should get our men together and they can go talk cars so we can read in peace!! :D
Now that is a good idea!:cool:
lol, we should,Ronnie loves to talk cars and bikes. We went to a car show on July 4th when I was eight and half months pregnant which I was the one who wanted to go, granted, course after an hour and half I was just as ready to go but Ronnie was still talking cars with some guys and I had to smile cause I loved him but wanted to strangle him at the same time.
Volgadon
09-09-2008, 03:30 PM
Bernard Cornwell is a safe bet for men, even if they only like 20th c. They remiond me very much of James Bond novels, but with the Napoleonic Wars thrown in.
Anyway, Nona, are you sure your husband isn't a reader? Seems like an odd choice of books if he had no idea.
Carine
09-09-2008, 05:38 PM
That's great news for you Nona !!
My partner is an even bigger reader than me actually, so no complaints there and he likes HF aswell. Although he'll read more the male writers like Bernard Cornwell, Alexander Kent, Allan Mallinson, Simon Scarrow, Dudley Pope. He also likes crime like James Patterson and so.
But on the other hand he also read everything by Dorothy Dunnett and loved it.
I've tried to make him read The Greatest Knight, he hasn't yet, but he will one day. He has read Lords of the White Castle by EC though and enjoyed it.
eclecticreader10
09-10-2008, 01:55 AM
Recently I met a guy online. I asked him if he liked to read and said he loved to read (he knew I did from my profile). As was getting to know him I kept trying to find what kind of books he liked. He finally tells me, 'I don't read, like you read. I mostly read manuals online to learn how to play a computer game.' In other words, he reads directions! Clearly, he was telling me what he thought I wanted to hear. He would have been better off telling me he didn't read for enjoyment. I could handle that; I'm sure we could have found other mutals interest. And, oh by the way, we are both in our 60's
lol at least he knows what he's doing when playing computer games.
My man started reading because of Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew's wife!!
I married an intelligent but uneducated guy who'd left school at 15 and taken up an apprenticeship in engineering. All he read was the Daily Mirror (Uk tabloid newspaper), never a book. Books were things he'd been forced to read at school and he wasn't interested. We met when he was 18 and I was 17 and married at 22 and 21. Until he was 35 that was the pattern of things re his reading. But then Fergie and Andrew started having marital probs. Her indiscretions at the poolside were featured in the Daily Mirror for page, after page, after page. DH screwed up newspaper, chucked it in the bin and said enough was enough. He'd try books again. So I took him to the library, held his hand while he looked round in nervous terror at all these books and helped him choose a Dick Francis thriller. He read it, enjoyed it, went back and got another. Diversified into Bernard Cornwell, George Macdonald Fraser, Leslie Thomas, Martin Cruz Smith etc. He hates war books and wham-bam mindless adventures (hates Clive Cussler for e.g.). He likes intelligent historicals - but not too highbrow. His favourite all time authors are Lindsey Davis and aforementioned Leslie Tomas. He's reading his first James Lee Burke at the moment. No comments as yet, only grunts. :)
These days he never has a book out of his hands and it's great to see. So men can come to reading at any time. Nona, looks like yours has turned the corner :)
Margaret
09-10-2008, 10:09 PM
'I don't read, like you read. I mostly read manuals online to learn how to play a computer game.' In other words, he reads directions!
And he loves to read them? LOL! Maybe you should snap him up and get him to take care of all your computer snafus!
EC, what a charming story about your husband! Dick Francis was a good place to start - his mysteries are fast-paced but intelligent, and I love the horse-race settings.
EC, my DH has a similar history. His parents had an 8th grade education and thought reading a waste of time. When he left school at 14, there was no real push to keep him there. But he was extremely intelligent and motivated and he had been reading everything he could get his hands on, esp sci fi and fantasy books since he was in his early teens. We met at our apartment complex, when I'd always see him sitting and reading. We talked about books and he was interested in what I was reading, so I got him into some Barbara Tuchman and Bernard Cornwell, and the fantasy writer Raymond Fiest. He was hooked. He also went back to school and graduated Summa Cum Laude. He always has a book sitting around, tho lately he has been more into graphic novels (tho I still call them comics but not when he's around :) He doesn't get lost in a book like I do, but he understands when I do, because he's that way with movies. If he is watching something thats not on tape, he is not to be disturbed unless the house is on fire.
All in all, I'm pretty darn proud of this guy.
Charliekat
09-10-2008, 11:18 PM
I wish I had the same success, Nora. My guy reads a book maybe once a year and even then it probably doesn't get finished. It is usually an answer to long distance travel we do on the train, so he brings a book along. Once the trip is done though it seems to disappear (I don't know how one can just not finish a book when it's not bad).
I always drag him to the bookstore with me and I try to encourage him to read. He likes fantasy (he plays many video games) so I showed him that section and he picked out a Star Wars novel. At least it's a book. Anyways, he started it excitedly but then it just stopped. I don't know. It's not like he doesn't have time to read cause I'm always sitting there with him and I'm reading and he's not.. Geez!
Anyways, I will continue to press on. I want to get him to read Here Be Dragons. Maybe I'm just a little too optimistic...
lol, never give up hope. I do have an update on my Ronnie, he has started Greatest Knight and do to sick childern ad work he has not had much time to read but he trudges on....
What fun stories! Whan I met J he was always getting me books, we'd discuss them, and I thought he was as avid a reader as I. Only much later did I find out (from his ex and family) that prior to me coming along, he only read electronic manuals and other tech-related stuff! It was quite a surprise, because I had always known him to be a reader, and he is to this day.
J prefers sci-fi, especially c.J. Cherryh (sp?), Orson Scott Card, and contemporary thrillers like Michael Chrichton. He loved the Hornblower series, tho, and is started on Flashman.
He has a 2-hour-a-day commute, so I keep him supplied with audiobooks from the library. I alternate him between classic fiction and history/biography.
Last night my Ronnie came home excited, I asked why he was so strung and said oh well William Marshall is ....(he rambled on for 5-10 mins.). I smiled nodding and he asked "Are all these HF books you read this good? What am I going to read next? Are there any other William Marshall books out there and how true is this......"
EC I would like to thank you, because your Greatest Knight has won my husband over.
update: Ronnie has started Scarlet Lion which we just got in the mail the other day, and loving it so far. I get to read it after him, lol funny how things can change...
Fingers crossed he enjoys the rest of it Nona!
Richard Lee, founder of the Historical Novel Society did (as in being a man too) so hopefully Ronnie will be okay with it.
Leyland
10-03-2008, 10:50 PM
Ash, Nona, MLE, CharlieKat and EC - have your men ever read any of John D MacDonald's novels featuring Travis McGee?
"A prolific writer of crime and suspense novels, many of them set in his adopted home of Florida, McDonald's best-known works include the popular and critically-acclaimed Travis McGee series, and his novel The Executioners, which was adapted into the film Cape Fear. In 1972, MacDonald was named a grand master of the Mystery Writers of America, and he won the American Book Award in 1980. Stephen King praised McDonald as "the great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller." That's from Wiki.
Travis McGee is very nearly an institution, IMO. Here's MacDonald's Wiki link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D_Macdonald
I haven't any read of his works that didn't feature McGee, but should rectify that in the future!
Carine
10-05-2008, 10:19 AM
update: Ronnie has started Scarlet Lion which we just got in the mail the other day, and loving it so far. I get to read it after him, lol funny how things can change...
HAH, I told my partner about this and not half an hour later he picked up the The Greatest Knight !! :D
Carine
10-06-2008, 09:02 AM
Well .... he loved it ! and .... finished it at 2 am this morning !! And .... in the mean time he read 2 chapters of The Scarlet Lion as well !
EC, you've got one more fan !!
Well .... he loved it ! and .... finished it at 2 am this morning !! And .... in the mean time he read 2 chapters of The Scarlet Lion as well !
EC, you've got one more fan !!
Glad your other half enjoyed it Carine!:)
Grasshopper
10-07-2008, 01:28 AM
You ladies crack me up! Am I the only tough guy on this forum? hehe!!
I think my wife and I compete with each other as to who reads the most. We have quite a library going. I know that she has always read.
There was a time when I didn't read much, starting around 9th grade, when I became quite a bit more athletic, playing lots of basketball and baseball. This dearth of reading lasted until my sophomore year in college (all this time was pretty much full of sports...I even played a semester of baseball in college). I picked up The Hunt for Red October over Christmas break and then shortly afterward, my wife (then girlfriend) bought me a few books and I took back off reading, often foregoing studying to finish a book. Now, I take a paperback with me to work everyday. Can you tell what's more important? ;)
See??? Tough guys can read, too! 8-)
Carine
10-07-2008, 05:40 AM
LOL, good for you Grasshopper ! :)
I agree but I would never have thought my Ronnie would read a HF, it's not his cup of tea you might say. Thats why it was a shock when he wanted to read Chadwick, but I'm happy to say I was wrong.
now my mother in law is reading Greatest Knight and Scarlet Lion, I wonder if I'll get them back long enough to read Scarlet Lion being as how the day it arrived Ronnie took it and indulged himself right away. I must say SL moved him, he actually had a tear running down his cheek as he finished the last page, ranting that "he must have been the greatest man in his time, what we wouldn't do to have men nowadays like him...."
All I can do is smile... :)
A couple of guys have told me they cried. One said he finished the book at the top of the house, hiding from his family so they wouldn't see him sobbing - I guess it might have been a problem as he has young children and the sight of daddy distressed might have upset his little girls too! It could be a whole new genre - tissue novels for men:D:D.
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