To not want to read really shit books to my baby?

[CooCooCaChu]

I've got an eight month old baby. We've got lots of really basic baby books. You know the kind, red circle on one page, blue triangle on the next. Or the endless 'that's not my ...'.

I find it incredibly boring to keep going 'oh look, this is a cow. Moooo.'

If I don't read these basic books, will she miss out on something important developmentally? Or can I skip straight to things with more of a narrative so I don't feel the need to stab myself in the eye just to create a bit of excitement?

Yabu you need to spend hours reading 'here is a car, brum brum'
Yanbu read something more fun, your baby will probably enjoy it more anyway

Go straight to War and Peace.

A is for Activist or get out ;-)

Read both. The simple ones for decoding and the more narrative ones for them to pick up the rhythms of speech. But repetition is alas inescapable.

Where the wild things are and any Maurice Sendak books are cool and no, YANBU I totally agree

DC used to love hearing me read, one holiday, when they were about 2, I read them Game of Thrones because that was what I was reading.
Doesn’t seem to have caused any lasting damage.

Try to avoid the word "shit" when reading. Not a good word for little ears to hear!

I dunno Op. I mean, what kind of book are you thinking of? A grown up one or still a childs one? I would find it odd sitting there reading an adult book to a baby, but perhaps thats just me?

The 'That's Not My...' series of board books is really good for babies as I recall (been a few years since that stage tbh). Head to your local library and see what's there that you like. Life is way too short to read shite books at any age.

There are millions of good children's books, why would you bother with ones you don't like? If you read The Tiger Who Came to Tea to a 8 month old they'll think "oooh cool tiger", it doesn't matter if they don't follow everything. At 18 months they'll get a bit more out of the story, and then when they're 4 a bit more again, etc.

Something like Lucy Cousins' A Busy Day for Birds is ace for babies and they'll still like it when they're bigger.

Read whatever you like for now but don’t expect to get through the early years without reading some very dull books along the way. And you’ll also read the good ones so many times they’ll become unbearable. But. Also. Once your child starts to interact and say “moo” when pointing at a cow etc, it is actually so lovely and fascinating. But yes with an 8 month old I’d read whatever you like.

You will be happy to read shape and cow goes moo books when within a year your child asks you to read them the same damn book every night for a few months.

Least with those books they don't take too long to read.

Oh and if anyone buys you a book that makes a noise donate it to a charity shop before your baby/toddler sees it.

You can definitely read proper stories to them. The ‘baby’ books are more for young toddler age when they’re interacting more with the book and starting to ‘read’ it for themselves.

We read lots of lovely picture books with our dc at bedtime from birth - the ones with proper stories in!

There are awesome 'baby' books out there. Look out for anything by Sue Boynton, Mem Fox, Helen Oxenbury, Rod Campbell Alan Ahlberg, some of the very young Julia Donaldson ones, Chris Haughton. Lots more im sure, but those come to mind

We’ve got This and there’s a few more in the series, they’re a bit more interesting than the more basic look and find ones, plus they rhyme so nicer to read.

Get some stories to read too, listening to the rhythm of natural speech, and rhymes is good for their language acquisition. There’s a recent thread about picture books, take a look there for recommendations.

YY to Lucy Cousins. Hello fish was a huge favourite in our house.

I ruthlessly weed the kids books regularly. If it’s not a book you’d be prepared to read 10 nights running, charity shop it. Even if the book is a brand new gift. In fact the charity shop would no doubt prefer this!

We read story books from day one and had the simple ones for reference if that makes sense?

Not Now Bernard
Mr Brown Can Moo
Each Peach Pear Plum
The Elephant and the Bad Baby
10 Little Fingers

Were the staples.

Ahhhh....

I had to hide that book.

We've always done the kids short stories that you get like 10 for £10 in the works.

The shapes and animals etc are better when they can interact

We like the Mog books best. Nice pics and silly little details.

There's a lovely series by Katrina Charman, which all riff off nursery rhymes. Go, go pirate boat is the one I remember, but there are a few more.

Also all of the Barefoot books are wonderful for babies

Can you not have both. Read a ‘proper’ book at bedtime, and keep the simple ‘dog, ball, car’ type books for playtime where she can handle them and ‘read’ them herself. (With you perhaps occasionally pointing out a picture or 2)

I think at this age it’s less important what your read and more important to read something. You could get the Julia Donaldson books and read them, or start the Roald Dahl collection. Or even read out loud your own book. I think the important bit at this stage is hearing your voice and learning to recognise the sound of words.

To be honest I find the boring repetitive books okay when I’m reading them for the 1000 time as I just kind of zone out to what I’m saying, the really long books are worse when you’re reading the again. I think reading something longer like The Gruffalo or Can’t You Sleep Little Bear etc for the fourth time that day takes too much brain to switch off/ go on autopilot but is also just as boring once you’ve read it more than a couple of time. At 8 months old though I don’t think it really matters what you read, I’d go for board books though if you don’t want to be fighting baby trying to rip at the pages and chew at the corners.

The OP is concerned whether her baby will miss some learning milestone if she misses reading some style of books to her LO.