Owen and Books

As I have mentioned in previous entries, Owen isn’t yet the bookworm that I figured any child of mine would naturally be.  Right from the beginning he has liked books, but only certain books, and he usually has about ten or so that we can read to him at any given time, yet won’t accept substitutes or a new book thrown into the mix.

In the last few weeks, however, he seems to be showing a renewed interest in books, so I have been reading to him as often as he will let me.

Owen sneak listening to another kid's story:

  

My friend, Elisabeth, recommended the Mo Willems books, and I got a few of them for Owen for Christmas.  I had to do some wrangling at first, but now they are part of his rotation, especially the pigeon finds a hotdog book.

I do notice that he’ll bring up phrases and occurrences from the books we read to him, so they are definitely permeating his consciousness.  Sean called me once in hysterics because he had asked Owen if he wanted a taste of something Sean was eating, and Owen replied no, because “it tastes like chicken” (which is something that occurs in the pigeon and hotdog book).  And because we laughed when he said it, now it is one of Owen’s standard phrases….

I also have watched Owen sit down with his books recently and “read” them to himself, and he uses a lot of the “right” words on the corresponding pages – so at least I know that he is paying attention to the books he allows us to read.

I also find it true that if I try to read a book a few times, and only get a few pages in, eventually Owen will add that book to his rotation.  For example, he wouldn’t let me read “Where the Wild Things Are” for several months, but now it is his favorite.  He still loves the Maisy books, too.

Plum Feeling Bookish

When we moved this summer, I was in the midst of a bad case of pregnancy edema, so spent all of my non-work hours with my feet up.  This meant that Sean had to do most of the packing and most of the unpacking, including all of my books.  When I moved from New Hampshire to Philadelphia via New Jersey nine years ago, I donated almost half of my book collection:  but I still have a lot of books.  Books please me.

We wanted to try to get the house at least basically arranged before Owen arrived, so when we unpacked, Sean put my books on the shelves as they came out of the box.  This was fine for a temporary solution, but my OCD wouldn't let this situation stand for long!  Why there were "w" books communing with "F's" and "A's"!  Fiction was mixed with nonfiction!  Authors' oeuvres were scattered across two floors!  It simply would not do.

I waited until I had my strength back and could stand on my feet and bend at the waist, and I set to alphabetizing and rearranging one weekend in September.  I didn't have much room in my Philly apartment, so settled there for a general alphabetizing of the books with no separation of genre, and lots of horizontal stacks.  Since we have room in this house--plus several built-in bookshelves!--I was able to do some OCD arranging!

And Plum helped!  Here he is filing himself under "L"...for Lothario?

For any reader with book OCD who needs to know, I separated my books into autobiography and memoir, Sean's art books, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.  And I experimented by making the shelf on our second floor landing into a shelf of series!  With some Trollope on top!

Contented sigh!