Books, books, books

23 Weeks, 2 days

For me, the Kindle will never catch on. I love books, real books, that you can feel curl with your hand, smell the fresh pages as you turn them and hear the paper sliding between your fingers with each adjustment. Usually, I am in the middle of reading several books and I enjoy seeing them piled up with their colorful spines stacked up facing me. Currently, I am in the middle of many, many books:

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. I started reading this several months ago. I read the two before it as well. A friend of mine really loves them and I thought I could throw it into my rotation. For some reason, I have stalled out. I have about 30 pages to go and I just can't get myself to pick it up again. I like the idea of a series, but this just hasn't captured my interest.

I have a stack of nerd books. These are books that I don't read cover to cover, rather, I skim and read bits and pieces. The focus is split between Photoshop CS4 and Flash CS4. I have to admit that I did very little skimming in the Photoshop books. I have finished teaching Photoshop for the year and am now focusing on Flash, specifically animation, game design and script writing.

When I was teaching Flash CS3 last year, I had the kids writing scripts in the old language Action Script 2, but I know I need to get with the times and move up to Action Script 3. It is a whole other language, literally. There are a few phrases that I understand and a whole lot that I don't. When my insomnia would get bad I would lay in bed and write scripts in my head, now, I have to relearn it all. I consider this to be part of my brain calisthenics.

I also started the next book in Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. I am on book V, The Wolves of Calla. It's a fast read. I enjoy the fact that it is the same characters continuing the same quest book after book. There is a certain flow to the books that makes them quick to get through and yet easy to remember as well. Stephen King writes in a way that is both clever and simple. I am often amused to the point of chuckling aloud. I read very little fiction and this is pure brain candy for me, but I love it.

Sitting on our bookshelves for over a year is the book What to Expect the First Year this is the second book in a series on pregnancy and childcare. I had been picking up and putting down the previous book What to Expect When You are Expecting, but some little part of me fears it is jinxed. We purchased that book during the first pregnancy and every time I got pregnant again I would start to read it and then miscarry. I don't believe in jinxes, but I don't handle the book too much now, just in case. When we bought the second book in the series, I never got a chance to crack it open, so I figure that one is 'safe'. Perhaps it is actually the third in the series. I believe there is a primer book on how to get pregnant, but I have never needed that one.

What to Expect the First Year could be really helpful for me, as I know nothing about babies. It's almost comical how clueless I am, but I feel like this may work to my advantage. I have not been trained the the ways of baby rearing so I don't know what the 'right' thing to do is in any situation. In new situations, I tend to trust my instincts and I think they will serve me well when it comes to raising our kid.

I also like to do a lot of beforehand research on anything I am not familiar with. I try to investigate both sides of any coin that may be flipped my way and choose the more logical approach. Numbers speak to me and statistics have a lot of sway. Right now may be the only time left for me to do this kind of leisurely research before Piper is here screaming or turning purple or gazing mindlessly at the wall (or some other scenario that I haven't come across). I will use this time wisely and read, read, read.

I am also reading 3 Beatrix Potter books. One is a biography of her life, one is the companion book to a show of her work from the Tate and the third is her collected stories. She was a fascinating woman and her stories are so different from today's children's books. We all know the gist of Peter Rabbit, but her original story takes on a slightly darker tone than the one we all repeat. Actually, all of her stories do.

There is no neat, wrapped up 'happy ending', rather, they are tales of learning from your errors which are mostly character flaws. The protagonist doesn't get off scott-free in the end, there is usually some price to be paid for his mistake, whether it be going to bed hungry or losing your tail to a cantankerous owl. The moral of these tales are much more true to life. One cannot just say 'I'm sorry' and all will be well again, there is often a pound of flesh to be paid somewhere to someone.

In addition to the dose of reality, her illustrations are beautiful: watercolor and ink. It is a pairing that I have fallen in love with and am seeing over and over. Ralph Steadman did a lot of his work with this combination as did Tim Burton, two artists I greatly admire. The play of soft, flowing watercolors to the sharp, biting black ink is brilliant. Crisp, vivid and purposeful.

Yesterday, five more books came in the mail: Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, Special Delivery: A guide to creating the birth you want for you and your baby, Home Birth: A practical guide, The Diaper Free Baby and Baby-led Weaning: Helping your baby love good food. I have started on Home Birth: A practical Guide and will try to get through a book every few days. I am arming myself to the teeth to ensure that I am making the best decision I can through the knowledge of others.

I may choose to dismiss some information, because my logic may get in the way of some of the ideas. I know that there are many ways to do the same thing, often with different outcomes. After absorbing some information, I allow myself time to consider it and discuss it with Griffin. If it makes sense to us, I will add that bit to my collection of things we will try, if it seems illogical, it gets pushed aside (and possibly ridiculed by us in the future). Perhaps, in the heat of the moment, the things that once seems so logical to us will blow up in my face, that is a chance I will have to take. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

My books are surrounding me now. There is a fire roaring in the fireplace and my cat is curled up next to me purring. The hardest part of this lazy Sunday morning will be deciding which book to start reading first. Of course, I must put down this laptop before I can do anything else. And so I will.