A Different Kind of Reading List
It’s September, and according to Goodreads, I’m a dismal 14 books behind my 52-book reading goal for the year.
But that’s not quite the whole story, because I’ve been doing a lot of under-the-radar reading. No, not genre fiction or trashy beach reads or bad Dan Brown novels or any of the other kinds of books I might be tempted to keep mum about on this blog, but another category entirely – baby and parenting books.
As a reader who cares as much about language and cadence as I do about content, baby books are a weird world to immerse yourself in. They’re more like operating manuals than anything else – primary-colored just-the-facts compendiums of information, advice, and strategies. From 50 pages about the politics of vaccinations to wildly conflicting theories about getting your baby to sleep to an entire book dedicated to swaddling and soothing, it’s valuable stuff, but it’s not poetic. Even the genre’s memoirs – like Sara Zaske’s Achtung Baby, which lightly and humorously advocates a no-nonsense German style of parenting vs. American coddling – is saddled with a significant educational burden.
As my pregnancy progressed and books about tummy time began to supplant books about traveling the world on my reading list, I considered embarking on a new Read + Roam feature. Bon Voyage with Baby? On the Road with a Newborn? But the truth is, the baby books I’ve been plowing through are fundamentally incompatible with the premise of Read + Roam. There’s no roaming with a newborn, unless it’s to the pediatrician’s office.
This tension – between the wandering ethos this blog espouses and my current reality – is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. Our pregnancy was a tough one – I’ve been on some degree of bedrest since May, and we’ve been beset by a bevy of complications, setbacks, and uncertain outcomes. Now that our son is here, those uncertain outcomes continue – our sweet Finnegan Anderson Fraser is working so hard to breathe under the sun of NICU lamps, and we're working so hard to hold it together for him and each other. It's all turned my thinking upside down. In the past, I’ve spent a lifetime preoccupied with getting away, expanding my horizons, and seeing new things, but for the last few months, I couldn’t have cared less about the roaming half of this blog. I just wanted a baby who would be well enough to make it.
I’m sure I’ll feel differently soon. My life became a fog of thrilling hope and crippling fear this year, but that fog will recede as suddenly as it arrived, and I’ll be back to booking flights and planning itineraries before I know it (albeit with a whole bunch of baby gear in tow!). But for now, I’m going to put a pause on posting, so I can roam a little less and embrace new parenthood a little more. Thanks for being patient with me!