11 August, 2008

Is there a pattern here?



Now that I'm on vacation I can indulge in some reading time.

And just to clarify things up front, hell no, I'm not pregnant.

I just finished reading a book called "Rules of Engagement" by Catherine Bush. I loved it. It has been on my bookcase for the longest time and I finally decided to pick it up. Actually, I picked it up because I was trying to avoid reading "The Time Traveller's Wife."

I've heard that The Time Traveller's Wife is a fantastic book, and I want to read it, but a friend loaned it to me and now I feel pressured to read it. I hate feeling pressured to read anything. It takes the joy out of it. So as it sits on my table waiting for me to pick it up, I'm reading anything else I can get my hands on to avoid reading it.

As a result, I am discovering books in my bookcase that I never realized I had and I'm quite enjoying.

First I read Spook Country by William Gibson. I love William Gibson and one of my favorite books has to be Pattern Recognition. Spook Country doesn't live up to Pattern Recognition, but it was a good summer read.

Then I read Rules of Engagement (see above). So since I finished reading it this morning I've again been doing the avoidance dance and went back to my bookcase. This time I decided to take inventory since I'm planning on a garage sale soon and thought I might find some books that I could stand to part with. I actually made a startling discovery. When I was pregnant with the wee man I bought the old standby "What to Expect When You're Expecting." After a couple of hours or reading this book I was so horrified I threw it in the garbage. I still can't imagine why anyone who is pregnant reads this book. It terrified me. I was certain that I and the wee man had every possible ailment in the book. Anything that was in that book was going to happen to me. So I got rid of it and swore that I would never pick up another baby book.

7 years later I'm looking at my bookcase and realize that even though I haven't read any of them, I have been buying baby/childcare books. With the exception of 2 books (and I really wanted to read these) I haven't read any of the others and can't remember buying them. Is it subconscious? Am I buying them because I think I will read them, because I think that I should read them, or because I think that I will be a better mother just by owning them?

Here is the list of what I found in my bookcase:
  • The Mommy Wars
  • The Mother Dance
  • The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander
  • A Life's Work
  • Hold on to Your Kids
  • Because I Said So
  • Real Boys
  • Mothers
  • Perfect Madness
  • The Wonder of Boys
  • Your Five Year Old
  • Protecting the Gift
  • The Blessing of a Skinned Knee


So you can see, no small list. I think there may have been more, but I may have lent them out. I can't remember. I did read the last 2 on the list and I think that they are invaluable books for parents. The others - will I ever read them? Do I need to? While I'm trying to figure out what I am going to do with these books, I think that I will read "The City of Falling Angels" and maybe "The Time Traveller's Wife."

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