the need to read

So I have to admit that one thing neither Justin or myself is very proud of is the fact that neither of us really read enough. I will go through my random teenage obsessions with the rest of the world and read the Twilight series and then progress to the slightly more trashy Sookie Stackhouse novels. Justin will read much better quality literature than myself, but he only reads in ten to fifteen minute increments (if you know what I mean) so he reads about two books a year.

Point is we both need to read more and with the arrival of our son nearing we finally decided to do something about it... something to encourage us to close the computer and open a book a little more often. So last night, after work, we drove down to the Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library and got ourselves shiny new library cards! (My mother, the librarian, will be so proud... and no, you don't have to point out how crazy it is that I don't read with a librarian as a mom; I'm aware...)

Our new library cards - 6.29.11

Since we were limited to only a couple books until they verify our address, we kept it light the first trip with a photography for dummies book and a couple birthing books, one of which was recommended to me by a sweet aunt of mine. It was fun to walk through stacks again and it brought back exciting memories of my childhood when we would take trips to the library quite often. I am so excited to be able to have such a great place to eventually take Tyson to where we can encourage him to enjoy reading the way we did when we were kids, and to hopefully never stop like we have in recent years. We'll probably just try to leave that part out and let him think we were super smart readers our whole lives... he'll never know.

Anyways, we also have to tell you about this incredibly amazing program offered in TN that Dolly Parton started (who doesn't LOVE her?!) that sends out a free book, once a month, to every child from the day they are born to when they turn five.

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

We asked about it at the library and they gave us all the information about it but its really very simple; once Tyson gets here all we do it sign him up and boom, it's done! We will get a book in the mail every month that is age appropriate for him and its all free! The program is called Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and although it started in East TN, it is spreading all over the state and now to other areas and even other countries. Any of you with little kiddos should definitely check this out and see if it's in your area, and if it's not you could even look into how to get your community involved with it.

So now that Justin and I are going to be literary scholars again, do you have any good books you'd like to recommend to us?