Babies

So, my first son is now five months old, and I'm wondering: how quickly does everyone else resort to snatching 5 minute snippets of candy (think Dragonlance) just so they can read SOMETHING?

note: even candy is hard to concentrate on when your only opportunity is during the five minutes between bed and oblivion. yeesh.

Hey, don't forget about short stories and poetry. I've often wondered why, in today's rushed times, short prose and verse is still trending downward in terms of readers. Grab a good YEAR'S BEST antho and dip into that when you have the spare time.

But as a father of two, I know where you're coming from, kiddo...

"in the great green room there was a telephone, and a red balloon and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon"
"anything that anyone would look for is usually where they find it, said Pussywillow."
"In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree. Where Alph the sacred river ran, through caverns measureless to man, down to a sunless sea."
"When Papa was away at sea and mama(?) in the arbor, Ida played her wonder horn to rock (?) the baby still.."

all stuff we read and reread to our kid 25-22 yrs ago and it sticks with you - i'm sure i haven't read those since then (adam is 26 now).

Caine667, you get used to reading with interruptions. I can put anything down, and then pick it up as if nothing had happened. Including a six week break in the middle of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay when Mr Bear was born. (Mr Bear still owes me six weeks uninterrupted reading time. I may get it in 15 years or so...)

I can also make a batch of pancakes while reading. (With a few possibly a little too well done...)

But Dragonlance! Oh my, you poor thing. Seconding other people's recommendations for short stories and poetry. And I'd also recommend young adult as a better option than Dragonlance (unless it has improved dramatically since I last picked one up). Plus, you can always say you're vetting them for when the baby's old enough to read them himself. :)

Poetry is great for stop/start reading. And best of all, all that old stuff is all over the second hand book shops.

"Tikki-Tikki-Tembo-No-Sa-Rembo-Chari-Bari-Ruchi-Pip-Peri-Pembo has fallen into the well!"

"Little Orphant Annie came to our house to stay..."

"I only relate what was told to me by the Chinese Plate."

"Oh, the Northern Lights have seen queer sights
But the queerest they ever did see
Was the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee."

Some of this stuff never leaves us.

I will say I never introduced either of my children to the wine dark sea.

Peggy Albion-Meek wrote a good kids' adaptation of THE ODYSSEY called THE GREAT ADVENTURER, which I read when I was around 10-11.