What We're Reading

I wish I was an avid reader but the truth is that I'm not. Not right now anyway. Still, I love books. I love their artful covers, quality binding, the way they smell (MOST of them), and of course, how much insight and inspiration I get considering how little effort I need to put in.

Looks like Edie has also caught the book bug too!

She's had her hot and cold phases, but for the most part, Edie's always enjoyed reading. She is definitely in a reading high these days, and it is amazing to hear her bust out random thoughts and phrases from our reading. It is so so so challenging when she says: "mommy can you please read to me?", when I have to do chores or get her ready to go out. She always asks to read a book at least twice.

The majority of our reading is me reading an English book and translating it on the fly to Cantonese, but since we've noticed that Edie picks up on very subtle changes (she corrects her dad when he translates words in a colloquial way), I've tried to keep the text as consistent as I can (hurts my brain sometimes). Because the stories are getting more complex, that means I try to translate ahead of time. I have to admit that I never thought my two year old would push me to improve my Chinese, but here we are. We read mostly story books, but Edie doesn't discriminate. We go through my photography books, recipe books, and basically any print matter that interests both of us. The only ban in the house is Olivia. The original book is great, but TV series-turned-books make me want to scratch my eyes out. Edie received an Olivia travel gift pack and I read that to her for about a month, then I hid them. We still get into a fight when we're at a store and she begs me to read Olivia. I want to but I really can't.

Back to books that we DO enjoy! Other than birthday gifts and her baby board books, most of our books are from the library. Our library has a decent website and mobile app that I use pretty much daily (and yet still have library fines!) I love how easy it is to put holds on books and to keep different lists. When we're at a book store and I pick up a tittle that looks interesting, I just go into the library app and put that book on hold. 90% of the time the books are part of the catalogue. If it's not, I save it on our amazon wish list.

Friends have asked me how or where I find books for Edie, and the answer is anywhere and everywhere! My sources include:
- The library (featured books, books that I find randomly in a corner, books that look pseudo clean)
- The library website (topic search, new titles, other user's lists)
- The librarian (sometimes the website's topic tags don't make sense)
- Amazon suggestions
- Award winners (Award examples)
- Internet book lists, reviews
- Books lying around at my friends' houses

I'm excited to share some of our favourites and look forward to discovering some new gems from you.


P.S. I still think library books are dirty and gross, but I no longer think about that too much.