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Published On: Aug 25, 2004 09:37 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Aug 25, 2004 09:37 PM
What I can remember reading
I like less and less television, and I can read
and nurse at the same time and it's safer than cooking and
nursing...
So what I can't explain is why when I got
pregnant I couldn't stand reading anything about mothering or midwifery.
Actually, I do have an explanation -- I needed to experience my own experience
sort of unmediated by what I was reading, to not be an expert on everything
happening to me because just being the mother is responsibility enough, and a
lot of reading was just pure escape. I had a stack of books on the art of
writing, a couple on new urbanism (recommend highly Suburban Nation)
which makes me feel like living in a small, older house in a small, tree-filled
neighborhood is somehow a moral virtue and not just an aesthetic thing. I
read everything I could by Connie Willis and fell into a lot of fun feminist
science fiction, starting with Sherry Tepper's stuff. I read Douglas Coupland's
Hey Nostradamus because I will loyally read anything he writes and I like
it better than anything since
Microserfs.
After Rainer was born, I found myself craving memoirs, so I read the oral history of a granny midwife in Alabama, Motherwit, by Onnie Lee Logan, and The Liars' Club by Mary Karr, which reassured me that I am not the worst mother ever even if I sometimes feel inadequate to the toddler and baby crying at the same time, and hey, if I am, at least my children will grow up to write interesting memoirs. For pure escapism I just finished Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost. Now I've started The Bastard on the Couch, where 27 men give views and feelings on the changing roles of men -- a sequel to The Bitch in the House, which was similar essays by women. I've read a lot of stuff by women on how they feel about marriage and children (not to mention conversations with friends and reflecting on what the heck I'm doing) and was really curious about the male perspective. And to balance some of the bitterness and frustration I'm reading Steve Ross' Happy Yoga, which, from what I've read, does a fine job of balancing the relative simplicity of real happiness with not having a simplistic world-view, plus it has nice little tips on diet and postures.
After Rainer was born, I found myself craving memoirs, so I read the oral history of a granny midwife in Alabama, Motherwit, by Onnie Lee Logan, and The Liars' Club by Mary Karr, which reassured me that I am not the worst mother ever even if I sometimes feel inadequate to the toddler and baby crying at the same time, and hey, if I am, at least my children will grow up to write interesting memoirs. For pure escapism I just finished Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost. Now I've started The Bastard on the Couch, where 27 men give views and feelings on the changing roles of men -- a sequel to The Bitch in the House, which was similar essays by women. I've read a lot of stuff by women on how they feel about marriage and children (not to mention conversations with friends and reflecting on what the heck I'm doing) and was really curious about the male perspective. And to balance some of the bitterness and frustration I'm reading Steve Ross' Happy Yoga, which, from what I've read, does a fine job of balancing the relative simplicity of real happiness with not having a simplistic world-view, plus it has nice little tips on diet and postures.
Posted: Wed - August 25, 2004 at 06:53 PM