I am a self-proclaimed nerd, and I’m pretty darn proud of it! So is Mr. Canary in his own way. We’re nerds about different things, which means we’re going to look like this on moving day:
image from J. Crew catalog August 2007
We love books (and have way too many)! I love a good biography on an artist or an interesting business strategy guide or possibly something on sociology… but I have to admit, my favorite type of book usually involves some kind of unconventional love story.
I think Kate Spade also had the same idea with the “Summer Reading” section of her site. With the autumn chill setting in, summer is long gone, but what’s more academic and nerdy than reading in the fall? 
I recently finished reading an amazing love story, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. I finished it in two days… couldn’t put it down. Here are some of my all time favorites:
What are some of your favorite love stories? Are you incorporating any of your favorite books or poetry into your wedding?
I knew I had found the man of my dreams when on our second date we got into a heated argument over Milton and Shakespeare. We cut our date short, so we could head back to his place (minds out of gutter) to pull out his Milton and Shakespeare anthologies to read and battle over our favorite passages!
I also read “The History of Love” and thought it was ingenious. I’m reading another book by Krauss right now: “Man Walks Into a Room.” The “Feast of Love” by Charles Baxter (soon to be released as a movie) was also a good read on the topic.
Great post! I’m a book nerd too. My favorite unconventional love story of recent years is definitely the Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. Bonus points for its Chicago references! The male protagonist of this story works at the Newberry Library, which is where we’ll be married next spring! We’re definitely thinking of incorporating favorite books and/or quotes but aren’t quite sure how we want to do that yet.
The Notebook! Great book AND great movie. Never fails to make me sniffle.
My top three:
1) “Jane Eyre” for sure…I think Mr. Rochester is kind of a butt, but I’m a sucker for the part when Jane hears him calling to her over the miles!
2) It’s not really a traditional love story, but there is a love story IN it — “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy for Aragorn & Arwen’s love story; she gave up immortality to be with him! Now that’s a wedding gift! (And “The Silmarillion” which is a collection of JRR Tolkein’s other writings of Middle Earth also has some very moving and poignant love stories. Some are rather tragic, tho’.) And I know, this is a cheat way for me to get 4 books into one pick!
3) My third nomination goes to “The Princess Bride” which is a book, as well as being a movie — they’re different, and depending on your personality, you could hate (or really not like) the book even if you like the movie (like my hubs). I love both. It’s just so over the top, cute and fun.
Tuck Everlasting and The Alchemist are on my favorite list. I’ll have to try some of your others. I finally read The Notebook and loved it even more than the movie.
I loved the history of love as well! I am a sucker for a good story that just draws you in. Your whole list is wonderful. I can’t believe you have tuck everlasting on there, Jesse Tuck was one of my first literary crushes ever :).
You should try “Love Walked In” for a totally sweet and poignant love story. I read it twice in a row because I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters.
And “The Time Traveler’s Wife” is an intense, otherworldly sort of romance as well.
Both would be delicious with a cup of tea and covers and a fall day.
Thanks for this post, hooray for Bookish bees!
ChicagoSarah — Martha Stewart Weddings (I think…it was either them, BRIDES or Modern Bride) did a great feature on using quotes in your wedding. They had a really neat variety of ideas. I’ll see if I can find it and link it here.
Somewhat off topic, but what do you DO with all your books? Mr. Tulip and I have 2 bookshelves each, and I think we’re going to try to get it down to 2 *between us* once we move in together…. Meanwhile, my life is a constant struggle to keep things down to just the 2 as it is! My floor always winds up looking like the street in that (fabulous) J Crew photo….
Some true classic love stories: Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, Tristan and Isolde (I think the movie version bombed horribly though!), Gone with the Wind (even read Scarlett because I didn’t want her GWTW character’s story to end!), etc. I love books, too!
Miss Tulip - I have SO many books! We’re melding our two households and are “discussing” where the books should go. Super fun times right now!
I have no idea what Mr. Jasmine and I will do with all our books– we’re going to get a lot of bookcases I think.
Pablo Neruda is one of my FAVES… I can’t believe I forgot to include that. He’s also got a great collection, “The Captains’ Verses”
And who could forget Shakespeare and Milton? And the other classics, Jane Eyre, and Anna Karenina (tragic, really!)
Charles Baxter is also phenomenal! I haven’t read “A Feast of Love” but have read “The Believers” and “Saul and Patsy” (which is an eerie love story, about a young just-married couple).
So many great suggestions! I’ll have to pick up “The Time Travelers Wife,” “The Notebook,” and all the other great recommendations!
With so many avid readers, we should start a Weddingbee book club. 
As for shelves, Mr. C and I have been negotiating this from day one! The conversation usually goes, “Well, you should get rid of those books, it’s a series and you’ve already read all of them!” (Me referring to Mr. C’s James Bond collection.) “You should get rid of all of those clunky ones! They’re just pictures!” (Mr. C referring to my vast collection of art catalogues.)
I think the solution is more shelves! Or build a fantastic library.
I collect children’s books and that picture looks like us when we moved last winter. There are only so many boxes you can beg, borrow, and…um, borrow to get that many books transported. We have a sneaking suspicion that they put on weight the longer they’re in boxes. We vowed never to move again just based on that one bookcase.
And it might not be in the same vein as the rest of the post, but my favorite children’s book is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.
“Once there was a tree….and she loved a little boy”
I even tried to think of a way to incorporate the book in our wedding somehow, but it didn’t quite work.
Ohhhhh…”The Giving Tree”! I love that book! My co-worker and I were just discussing that and Shel Silverstein. Do you know the poem about the circle and the triangle? We could remember the illustration, but not what the poem was about. (One of her friends wanted to read it at another friend’s wedding, but was vetoed by the bride.)
I have always wanted to live in one of those houses where they have the built in shelves along all the walls of the room…we have to content ourselves w/ three squishy shelves. (Our apt. is very peculiar and we can only put shelves against interior walls — the exteriors are floor to ceiling glass. Seriously limits how many books you can accumulate. Boo…)
Isabel Allende’s Daughter of Fortune is a beautiful love story. It may have helped that I read it while I was spending a summer in Sacramento! But it is a marvelously written story.
I always joke that most of my treasured possessions are paper: books, sheet music, and pictures.
I loved History of Love; I read that on my honeymoon. If you like love stories, anything by Nicholas Sparks is great (sappy, but fun). My favorite love story is The Time Traveler’s Wife! OMG! And if you like Time Traveling - Journeyman on Monday nights is fun too!
I think a Bee book club would be lots of fun
my brother included the velveteen rabbit into his ceremony….
i can’t remember exactly which portions, were quoted, but it was from this section:
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
“I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.
“The Boy’s Uncle made me Real,” he said. “That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”
On the topic of incorporating books into your wedding … we are both college professors, and we love books and have a ton of them (literally, I think) so our wedding cake is going to be in the shape of a stack of books (4 to be exact, plus one open on the top.) The stacked ones are going to be titled on the spine: two of his faves and two of mine. We’re stil working out what the open books will say, but we’ll probably use a favorite poem, or the opening to our favorite novel. We thought this cake would be a great way to incorporate our personalities (and we haven’t told our wedding party or guests, so everyone will be surprised, and, hopefully, amused.)
princesskittyHI, is it this one?
Shel Silverstein
Shapes
“A square was sitting quietly
Outside his rectangular shack
When a triangle came down–keerplunk!–
And struck him in the back.
“I must go to the hospital,”
Cried the wounded square,
So a passing rolling circle
Picked him up and took him there.”
The Velveteen Rabbit is another great, thanks for remembering it, negativerobot!
Or maybe “The Missing Piece” which sounds more wedding like than getting stabbed in the back.
Here’s a blog with the text intermingled with some personal thoughts…
http://monicaap.blogspot.com/2007/04/missing-piece-meets-big-oby-shel.html
Here’s another:
http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/Kids/BookDetail.aspx?isbn13=9780060256715
Hey, thanks, ladies! You’re awesome! I will have to forward those links to my friend and see which is the one. I have a feeling it’s the “Missing Piece” one, since it is more wedding-y than the “Shapes” one. Thanks!
I am so happy you put Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress on your list! I liked it too!
One of my favorite love stories is The Time Traveler’s Wife. So good.
[...] Mr. and Miss Canary, Mr. Jasmine and I share an intense love for books. While law students at Notre Dame, we spent many [...]
[...] you’re a New Yorker and a bibliophile like Mr. Canary and me, you’ll know why The Strand is a “must-visit” on our list. It [...]
Mrs. Canary, New York
Age and Occupation: 24, Marketing
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Journalist/Editor
Engagement Date: February 16, 2007
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: October 19, 2007
Venue: Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers
About Me: I'm a born and raised New Yorker who loves all things crafty and artsy, food (cheese and dessert!), magazines, and shoes. I'm a power shopper always on the lookout for good deals or great quality-- sometimes I'm lucky and I find both! I love to dance and "shake what my momma gave me" but can also really enjoy a quiet night in with Mr. Canary and a good episode of Seinfeld or curl up with a good book.
A bee after my own heart!!! Mr. Jasmine and I *love* to read– in fact, the first time we both realized we had feelings for each other was in a bookstore
All of the books you’ve mentioned are amazing.
I also love:
1. 100 Love Sonnets and Twenty Love Poems and A Song of Despair, both by Pablo Neruda
2. The Book of Love by Rumi
3. Beloved by Toni Morrison