In "The Leap," why is the father attracted to the narrator's mother?

In "The Leap," the narrator's father is a doctor who attends her mother, Anna Avalon, after a near-death experience on her trapeze. According to the narrator, the doctor is attracted to Anna because she spent her youth touring Europe and visiting many of the cities that he, an "armchair traveler," wanted to see, like Venice and Rome. Moreover, he enjoyed listening to the many adventures she experienced in these places as she performed with the Avalon family.

The narrator's father is also attracted to Anna because they share a mutual love of books and reading. In fact, it was the doctor who taught Anna to read (she was illiterate when they met) and bought her her first book. After that point, the narrator says, Anna was "never without a book" and, clearly, this was a point of attraction for both the narrator's father and mother.