I can read...

Less than two weeks ago, I wrote about how I got my first library card in pretty much forever (Post:  A trip to the library).  Libraries are not a new thing, I get that.  However, my new found appreciation for them makes me giddy.  I feel the need to now bring them up in everyday conversations with people - "Have you been to the library recently?  They have so many books there and they are all free to read!"  As if people didn't know this already.  But since I just figured out the magical-ness that is the public library, I just assume that no one else knows this yet, otherwise I would expect people to be walking around with I heart Library t-shirts and singing of its said magical-ness. 

My 2010 new year's resolution was to read more - at least a book a month.  I think I read a piddly six books last year?  First of all, that's embarrassing, I know.  Second, I paid for all of them.  So less than two weeks after getting my new, magical (what can I say, this is my word) library card, I have two books completed and I'm working my way through a third and ready to start on my fourth.  I'm working to read a little fiction and non-fiction to get a little variety (I'm generally a non-fiction kind of gal). 

So far -

1. Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott
2. Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott

Since I've already admitted that I'm not much of a reader, I understand that perhaps my literary opinion doesn't mean much to anyone.  I will say that Anne Lamott is an excellent writer.  I will also say that Operating Instructions is probably one of my favorite books of all time.  She writes about her journey as a new, single mother to her son, Sam.  She shares her ups and downs through the first year of motherhood.  It is so honest and touching and I found myself laughing out loud through most of it.  I'm sure one of the reasons I fell in love with this book is that I'm going through many of these experiences myself while raising my own son.  I found myself nodding my head with so many of Lamott's experiences that I can relate to -

I was a mess all morning. Maybe my hormones are raging, maybe that's what the craziness was all about. Something is really off. Part of me wants my body back, wants to stop being a moo-cow, and part of me thinks about nursing him through kindergarten. I know a woman who nursed her daughter until the girl was almost four, and of course we all went around thinking that it was a bit much, too Last Emperor for our blood. But now when Sam and I are nursing, it crosses my mind that I will never ever be willing to give this up. It'll be okay, I think to myself, we can get it to work, I'll follow him to college but I'll stay totally out of the way....This the easiest, purest communication I've ever know.

My favorite passage from the book is one that touched my heart and is something that I continue to learn each and every day -

One thing about Sam, one thing about having a baby, is that each step of the way you simply cannot imagine loving him any more than you already do because you are bursting with love, loving as much as you are humanly capable of - and then you do, you love him even more.

How absolutely true...

I'm now off reading my next books, The Green Book and The Hunger Games.