Read Read Read

When I imagined myself as a parent, back in the dusty old days of my pre-Zachery life, I always tried to think about the various activities and things I would do with my child. Reading stories to my child was always one of the first things that sprang to mind. This stemmed, I think, from my own love of reading (for proof, drop by BookLinker, my book review weblog. I read probably three times as many books as I actually get around to reviewing...) and from my own cliched visualization of what a father was supposed to be like.

I envisioned myself sitting on my child's bed, the child snuggled down in the thick comforter, head on pillow, listening to my read tales and stories until their wide eyes grew sleepy, and then with a whispered "and they lived happily ever after", I would give them a goodnight kiss, turn down the lights and watch my lovely complacent child drift off into blissful slumber...Yeah, right.

In the early days, Zack was always a difficult child to get to sleep. Reading stories was great in concept but frankly the effort of just corralling him long enough to get him bathed and dressed in his pyjamas was exhausting. Even then, most storytime lapsed into a barrage of stuffed animals sailing across the room bouncing off Dad's head, or an impromptu wrestling match would suddenly start, generally with Zack flinging off the covers of his bed and launching himself through the air to land on my stomach. It wasn't until recently that reading has successfully been integrated into our evening routine.

This change in habit I think is basically due to Hollywood and J.K. Rowling. Zachery and I watched both of the Harry Potter movies on DVD over the summer and Zack loved them. It was the first time I've ever seen him sit through a long movie in its entirety. Generally even his favorite cartoons are only good for maybe 45 minutes at a maximum. The movies led us into the books and since the summer, we have slowly and steadily been working our way through all five of Rowling's Potter books. Zachery is enthralled, he is thrilled. He dashes off to find his pyjamas and brush his teeth quick so he can scoot into the bed and listen to the latest of adventures of his friends Harry, Ron and Hermoine.

For my part, I can't begin to describe how terrific it is to snuggle down with your child and have them listen - actually listen - to a long, involved story. Not that our storytime fits the cliche described above. Our reading time is interspersed with the usual whining for snacks, running out for the bathroom, fits of giggles, endlessly long and involved plot questions, frequent "what's going to happen" discussions, wayward cats plopping themselves on the book intermittently...you get the picture. Our reading time generally ends with Zack's mother abruptly turning off the room lights and telling us to stop, followed by the tug-of-war to get Dad and the latest Potter tome out of the room so Zack will settle down.

Wouldn't have it any other way.

The only niggling concern I have is that now that we are on the fifth book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) is what to read next. I'm leaning towards Watership Down. Any suggestions?

Comments are always welcome. You can reach me at dadchronicles(at)hotmail.com.

By the way Happy New Year! I hope you and yours have a marvelous 2004.