"Of course, every novel is a kind of dream you're asking the reader to have along with you. A book's not an object, it's an event." Justin Cronin
Mondo and I are avid readers. In fact, we're both in the middle of a couple of books each including the newly released Infinite Monster. I grew up with avid readers for parents and with books overflowing from cabinets and shelves in multiple rooms. I've noticed over the past year that my giant bedside table (literally it's a small library table) looks eerily like my mother's bedside table: a cascade of pens, highlighters, books, magazines, journals and other paper paraphernalia.
It would never have occurred to me before "my situation" that reading seems to be a huge part of pregnancy as well. So aside from re-reading Gone With the Wind and Infinite Monster, I have several pregnancy and baby books dog-earred next to my bed. I read them as I'm emotionally ready or as my brain can take it (please see the movie Knocked Up for more info). I'm not quite ready to fully immerse myself in the labor chapters of books and honestly, some of these books are boring. (I sound horrible, I know). We started with the pregnancy standard-issue What to Expect When You're Expecting and it's okay. We occasionally reference it, but otherwise we've moved onward based on some recommendations. I just recently purchased two books on advice from two recent Gtown mothers. I'll let you know once I get into those - one is on childbirth and the other is good for after Piglet is born.
But more than all of the books and Internet reading that is surrounding this little BOI incubation I've got going on here, I've thought a lot about Piglet's relationship to reading. Aside from my obsession with the nursery, the one thing I feel really connected to about this pregnancy is around books and reading. So, even though Mondo sometimes protests, I've already started buying books to get her own library going. I mean, Mondo and I have our own "library" at home and have some of our childhood books to offer her, but there was something so very cool about having books of my own (even everyone of the Bernstein Bears books I shared with my brothers) in my own designated cabinet. Mondo was also an avid reader as a child, so we are now good consumers (albeit bad for the environment): we buy a lot of books just like we still buy CDs. We like the experience and comfort of reading: the paper, the artwork, the smell.
Anywho, there are old standby books that I'm avoiding purchasing because it is likely one of the grandparents or other family members will purchase it for her such as I Love You Forever, or Good Night Moon. Apparently my favorite as a child was a little more rare: Runaway Marie Louise about a mongoose who runs away after her mom spanks her for being naughty. My mother would probably say that this was very telling of my childhood.
So, as for my book shopping for Piglet, I'm going for a bit more obscure books for now. I mean, not totally wackadoodle, but slightly offkilter. And, so where do I go? Of course: Hendley Market on
Which makes me want to know - do we have any Galveston-themed or Galveston-related children's books? And if not, who's gonna write one?
