Today I finished reading David Nicholls’s One Day, and I have a confession: it’s the first book I’ve read since Lyra was born. I'm telling myself that it's perfect to finish a book for the first time the day before she turns one, but mostly it seems shameful in a way to me, someone who considers herself an avid reader--I was the kid who was admonished to put down my book and go out to play--but somehow I just haven’t been reading. I would say it was that I lacked the brain power after having a new baby, but I did a lot of reading when Adriana was an infant (mostly the New Yorkers that I hadn’t read while I was pregnant, if I recall correctly) and this wasn’t exactly an intellectually demanding book, so I think it’s just that coping with an infant and a preschooler has left me drained. I haven’t had the energy to read, at least not anything new. When I’ve wanted something to read, I’ve wandered over to the bookcases, looked guiltily at the books I was given last Christmas, and then picked up something familiar, something I’ve read before that doesn’t require a lot of concentration.
Of course, it helps that One Day was the perfect sort of book for me. I will read any book that promises me a love story, and this one reminded me of The Time Traveler’s Wife, a book I’ve picked up over and over again, since I first grabbed it randomly in the little bookshop near my office in Glover Park before I headed to the airport on a work trip to Iowa. They’re not written in the same style and are very different books in most ways, but it was a love story that followed a couple over a long time. I’m not entirely sure why it is I like that, but I fall for it every time. I liked that I basically knew where the story was going, but that it took a long time to get there and that in the end it did actually surprise me, but didn’t totally baffle me with where it went.
Mostly I’m glad I finally just picked up a book and started reading again. I began a couple of days ago t while I was nursing Lyra to sleep, and then began sneaking away to read more when Brian was playing with the girls. Today Brian took Adriana out on her new bike, and I read while I nursed Lyra to sleep, read while she napped, read while she nursed after her nap, and then put her in her high chair and fed her while I finished the story. It felt good to be immersed in the story, to wonder when I’d next have a chance to settle down to read, to see a new book on my nightstand when I settled into bed.
Now I have to read the other books I was given this Christmas. Then I’ll start on last year’s books.
Of course, it helps that One Day was the perfect sort of book for me. I will read any book that promises me a love story, and this one reminded me of The Time Traveler’s Wife, a book I’ve picked up over and over again, since I first grabbed it randomly in the little bookshop near my office in Glover Park before I headed to the airport on a work trip to Iowa. They’re not written in the same style and are very different books in most ways, but it was a love story that followed a couple over a long time. I’m not entirely sure why it is I like that, but I fall for it every time. I liked that I basically knew where the story was going, but that it took a long time to get there and that in the end it did actually surprise me, but didn’t totally baffle me with where it went.
Mostly I’m glad I finally just picked up a book and started reading again. I began a couple of days ago t while I was nursing Lyra to sleep, and then began sneaking away to read more when Brian was playing with the girls. Today Brian took Adriana out on her new bike, and I read while I nursed Lyra to sleep, read while she napped, read while she nursed after her nap, and then put her in her high chair and fed her while I finished the story. It felt good to be immersed in the story, to wonder when I’d next have a chance to settle down to read, to see a new book on my nightstand when I settled into bed.
Now I have to read the other books I was given this Christmas. Then I’ll start on last year’s books.
1 comment:
Same here. I read in fits and starts these days. I miss it terribly.
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