The End is Nigh

I've talked about my fascination with Neil Gaiman a few times before. The fact that I have loved one of his books since I was 22 but had not explored the rest of his work until a few years ago and how unlike most of his fans his comic series Sandman (what bought him to fame in the first place) was actually the last thing of his I read.

There are 10 volumes in the Sandman library. And as a way of making them last I have gone slowly on ordering them. You see they are the last new (to me) Gaimans there are to read until he publishes something new. And we all know how long some authors can go between books.

This week thanks to the Book Depository (and me ordering them) I have received the last three in the series. My instant reaction was 'OMG! I'm going to be reading comics all day, perfect'. I opened the first one and with a sudden overwhelming fear I close it again.

The truth is, I'm desperate to read them! I've finally got the rest of these comics that I have been coveting for almost two years, slowly devouring them, making my 'cake' last. But once I've finished my cake, there is no more cake! And I know I'm going to want more cake!

Now if this is the biggest issue I have all day, I'm a very lucky woman, I know this. But still ....

So for now I will just look at them longingly for a while, I may clean the house while looking at them and do the multitude of other little things that I need to do while looking at them. Knowing all the while that at some point in the not to distant future, I may have to make do with another flavor of cake for a long while to come.

Watching - I've just grabbed a copy of Thor and am hoping to watch it tonight. By the way the Bill Paxton schlock movie was truly and wonderfully terrible.
Reading - nothing, did you read the above post? ;)
Listening - To the rain engulfing my worksite.
State of mind - Scratchy, a mixture of bad weather and kids stuck inside tends to do that to me.

Where do Babies Come From?

Tonight as I was putting Jack to bed we started talking about how food travels through our bodies.  Somehow that lead to Jack saying "mummy, wee comes out of a woman's vagina and so do babies, but only wee comes out of a mans penis".

As is my way, I couldn't just let that go.  So I mentioned that sperm, the seed that joins with a woman's egg to make a baby, also came out of the mans penis.  Of course the idea of an egg inside of me made Jack laugh and so as I tried to convince him that it wasn't like a chicken's egg I remembered the 'Where do I Come From' book that I had when I was a child.  I asked Jack if he wanted to read it.

And so I read the book that taught me where babies come from, to my little man for the first time.  As I read I was worried that it would turn out to be not as lovely as I remembered it.  I need not have worried.

It is a lovely book and told the story of how a baby comes to be in an informative and yet slightly romantic sort of way.  Here is a link to the book.

OK so there are a few points that I edited in the reading (like the fact that most mothers usually have a doctor or a nurse with them, or that we can't see what the sex of the baby is in the womb so the doctor tells the mother after the baby is born) but mostly I thought that this was still exactly the sort of book I wanted to explain the process to my kids.

I hadn't expected to have 'the talk' with Jack today, but then this has been a conversation that has happened over a period of years with new questions after each discussion.  This was the first time that I felt Jack was asking for the whole story, like how does the sperm get inside the mummy?

I have looked at a lot of different 'Where did I Come From?' type books.  Some of the newer ones that I have read are either very contrived or too black and white. It seems important to me that this book seems to to be written with love and yet is also sufficiently detailed.

I also have a copy of two other books that I think are great but very different.  Andrew grew up with a book that talks about how flowers are seeded, then how chicks get into the egg, then how puppies are born and then how people reproduce.  I had a little giggle at this today.  His book is so perfectly for him, just as I think my book is so perfectly for me.  I also have a national geographic type pop-up book with a pop-up uterus, a pop-up baby and a pop-up erect penis (we may wait a little while before I share this one with the kids)

I wonder how the way we learn about sex and babies forms our ideas as we get older.  I read this book and I wondered if I could trace back my love of pregnancy and birth to these beginnings? I don't know, but it can't have hurt.

Apparently my book isn't in print anymore, but if you can get your hands on a copy I highly recommend it.  Its got to be better to be ready for these conversations to pop-up when you least expect them, although maybe wait a while for pop-up penises.

Listen, Watch, Read

I often feel that I am behind the eight ball when it comes to pop culture. I blame this on motherhood most of the time, but really I didn't give these things a lot of time even before kids. I'd like to though.

But where to start when your this far behind? Where do the people in the know get their know?

Today I decide to blog about what I am currently reading watching and listening to but please note I am, as usual, behind the eight ball.

Listening:
My external hard drive died a week or so ago so at the moment I am stuck listening to the few things that I popped on my iPod pre its death. Luckily they were my all time favourites and the few new albums I downloaded recently
- Portishead, Dummy
- Kate Miller-Heidke, Curiouser
- The Cure, Greatest Hits
- Clouds, Octopus
- Emilana Torrini, Fisherman's Woman
- Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Live Art

Watching:
The one good thing about the death of the external hard drive is that the kids movies are also currently unavailable. This means that we are both having to watch less kids TV but also looking at the video store again for kids movies and therefore adult movies/shows as well.
- House (Season 3), the first two episodes were fresh but I have to wonder if that was all the new stuff the show had for us this season.
- Howl's Moving Castle & Spirited Away, these are both brilliant and I'm loving how much both of the kids are loving them as well.
- Buffy (Season 7), an oldie but a goodie I love having something light, trashy and familiar to watch after I have woken up
- Dollshouse (Season 2), I lost the first few episodes that I had downloaded in the hard drive crash of 2010 but luckily it is playing on Foxtel.
-The Vampire Diaries, as with Dollshouse I have lost a few episodes but I'm now back up to where I was thanks to Foxtel
- 10,000 BC, so crap I turned it off after 1/2 hour cause I just didn't care.
- Big Love (Season 3)
- Lastly I have Defying Gravity and some Mystery Theatre 2000 to watch when times are tight. I'm so excited to watch them but I really need some quiet kid free time so I can pay attention to them.

Reading:
I am trying some new things this year. Firstly I'm trying to catch up on some classics. Secondly I'm trying to get into some of the comics I have been wondering about. Both of which are lots of fun. The following are just the books I currently have on my bedside table.
- Sandman comics
- The Books of Magic comics
- Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monster
- Wonders of a Godless World
- We Need to Talk about Kevin
- American Gods

So that's my last week in a very large nutshell. What are you L/W/R? Anything your loving that I don't know about? Come on people in the know, share the knowing :)

Bookshelf Porn

For anyone that finds rooms full of books sexy this blog might be for you.

(Totally stolen from a friends tweet)

I Love Amazon

My books arrived from amazon this morning. There really is nothing more satisfying that finding a package on your doorstep early in the morning.

I had ordered;
+ Fresh Milk by Fiona Giles
+ Leading Antenatal Classes by Judith Schott
+ Not quiet what I was Planning edited by Smith magazine

The first two are for my course and I'm excited because they are so different from the other books I have read so far. The last is the compilation of the six word memoirs, which reminds me, I'm still waiting on your six word memoirs. So far i have mine (Bore two boys and found myself) Lizs (survived first 30 enjoying the rest) and Nicks (One day I'm gonna grow wings)

So come one get your butts moving and share :) mind you I'll be busy reading my new books 'grin'

Genre of the Month

I love books, I love everything about books, I love the new book smell and the crispy pages, I love reading and feeling that the time I am reading is all about me.

Recently I have been taking a break from the non fiction, birth and breastfeeding books that I have consumed non stop for the last few years and gotten back to my roots, although I need to go back to reading non fiction or I will never finish my course, but this month its been all about Fantasy.

I have been on a run of Neil Gaiman, I think his writing is clever and quirky, I often need to reread sentences because he is creative with the way he structures an explanation but his stories are unique, it reminds me of the way that my dad writes.

The first book I read of his was Stardust I read it years ago and loved it but it had never occurred to me to read any further, until I was walking past a book store and saw his latest book Fragile Things. Its a compilation of short stories and other bits and it was so enjoyable and different that I have now gotten my way through most of his back catalogue.

It reminded me that Fantasy and Sci-Fi really are my favourite genre, from Enders Game by Orson Scott Card to The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, give me an escape from reality any day.