Final PRABE Entry

Reading comes very naturally to me. Blogging is a very comfortable activity for me. But blogging about what I'm reading is harder.

Over the past 11 weeks, I have read just like I normally do: every single night, as soon as I lay down, I open up my Kindle. I usually read for about 30-45 minutes before I fall asleep. Some nights, if I'm more awake, I may end up reading for two hours. Some nights, especially since my 6th week of pregnancy, I can't even make it 15 minutes. That is how I read, and it's how I've read for as long as I can remember.

I haven't blogged in a while. I used to keep a blog, but that was when I lived overseas and wanted to communicate with my family. But it wasn't hard to get back into the swing of talking to an imaginary audience.

The hard part, for me, was digging a little deeper into what I was reading. I'm used to just absorbing books then moving on to the next one, like some kind of literary vampire. Blogging about my reading made me slow down a little bit and really reflect on how I felt about what was happening in the story. I think readers naturally make personal connections to what they're reading, but this blog forced me to articulate just what those connections were.

One thing I loved about this blog is how it gave me an outlet for things I was excited about (like catching the possible Doctor Who link in The Shining). It made me consider finding a book club here, because it was fun to share things that were surprising or exciting in whatever I was reading.

I read a whole book last night.

I couldn't help myself. It was entertaining; it was informative; it was hilarious. And I could identify with nearly everything the main character was going through (or will be able to, soon).

It was called "Expect This." Basically it was one woman's memoir of her first pregnancy. It was an open account of everything she went through. Her hormones, the letdown when she told people and they weren't as dramatically excited as she hoped, her labor, her fear that she might not be a good parent.

I loved it all.

We just found out we're finally pregnant (after a long time trying). I found myself relating so well to the writer when she talked about her first 6 weeks. And because of that, I tended to believe her more when she discussed the other 34 weeks she went through. It just made me more excited to get huge, labor, and meet this child my husband and I have created.

So excited that I missed my 9:00 bedtime - by about two hours.

Tonight, however, it's back to Gulliver's Travels. I've read it once, but I tend to inhale books on a first read, so second reads give me a little more detail. Already I'm giggling about the Liliputians and their treatment of Gulliver. And while I read, I like to keep one hand over my own tiny person inside me :)