Wedding reading
from Extracts from Adam's Diary — selected entries
Mark Twain
“from Extracts from Adam's Diary — selected entries” by Mark Twain is a prose reading read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about a minute and a half read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
Monday This new creature with the long hair is a good deal in the way. It is always hanging around and following me about. I don't like this; I am not used to company. I wish it would stay with the other animals. Friday She has taken to beseeching me to stop going over the Falls. What harm does it do? Says it makes her shudder. I wonder why. I have always done it — always liked the plunge, and the excitement, and the coolness. I supposed it was what the Falls were for. They have no other use that I can see, and they must have been made for something. She says they were only made for scenery — like the rhinoceros and the mastodon. Thursday She told me she was made out of a rib taken from my body. This is at least doubtful, if not more than that. I have not missed any rib. Wednesday … I find she is a good deal of a companion. I see I should be lonesome and depressed without her, now that I have lost my property. Ten Years Later After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
What it is about
Adam is baffled by Eve for four entries and then says the truest thing in the book. Tell the reader to slow right down for the last one.
Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: Adam and Eve · it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her · a husband who does not understand his wife yet · starts funny and turns sincere · diary entries · the rib joke · a couple who tease each other · a reading that changes gear at the end.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “from Extracts from Adam's Diary — selected entries” take to read aloud?
“from Extracts from Adam's Diary — selected entries” takes about a minute and a half read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “from Extracts from Adam's Diary — selected entries”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “from Extracts from Adam's Diary — selected entries” runs about a minute and a half, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “from Extracts from Adam's Diary — selected entries” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — and the timing that holds them together. Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole ceremony, written out, with this reading in its place.
Other readings that suit the same service
- On Marriage, from The Propheta minute and a halfKahlil Gibran
- On Becoming Real, from The Velveteen Rabbit55 secondsMargery Williams
- from The Importance of Being Earnest, Act Itwo minutesOscar Wilde
- On marriage, from The Devil's Dictionary — five definitionsa minute and a halfAmbrose Bierce
- Uniona minute and a halfRobert Fulghum
- Love Is a Temporary Madnessa minute and a halfLouis de Bernières