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

We have a bookshelf where the books are front facing. That's full paperback classics- Mog, Tiger Who Came To Tea, Old Bear, Going on a Bear Hunt, Meg & Mog, What Do People Do All Day, Owl Babies etc etc

We rotate the books once a month.

Then there's a basket with a jumble of board books that also gets rotated once a month. The books out of rotation are just in a box in the cupboard.

My son is 20 months old now but we've had this set up for a long time now. When they're younger it's nice for them to have the board books they can handle easily by themselves, especially the ones with different textures or mirrors in them.

The "100 first words" type books without any narrative really came into their own with both my children when they were about 12/13 months. That's when they started being able to point at the different pictures to "ask" what they were, and then started pointing at the dog/cat/egg/slide/whatever.

I have a video of my eldest aged about 15 months pointing at a picture of a blanket in his first words book, then running over to his actual blanket and picking it up, then running back to the picture again. He was so excited and so was I! By 2, he could name all the pictures in the book and even make up little stories ("that key go in that door"; "the girl play with a slide" etc)

But 8 months is still a bit too young for that, so books with a bit more narrative are fine at that age I think. I'm sure if you like reading to her she'll pick up on that and start to really enjoy reading with you.

Whatever you read them, they will want it repeated until you puke.
You (reading War and Peace aloud to Tiny Coocoocachoo "If everyone fought for their own convictions, there would be no war..."
Tiny Coocoocahu: "Again! Again!"
You: 'If everyone..."
14 times later you: "That's enough now"
Tiny Coocoo, pawing at War & Peace and sobbing "More bictions! More conbictions. Again again!"
You: Gin!

Surely the point of those boring board books is for them not to fall apart when your baby chews them?

You can always make up your own stories using soft toys as props.

that made me laugh.

From pretty young they’ll hand you the books they want you to read! I bought some of those babylit ones because I’m pretentious and my toddler never had any interest in them at all. He likes Julia Donaldson board books. And the classics like Dear Zoo, Owl Babies and the Very Hungry Caterpillar. It gets boring after three repeats in the same setting but generally I find I just like hanging out with him and enjoying seeing the world through his eyes, so you might surprise yourself.

If you want to save your sanity, three ideas:

1. buy some baby board books in other languages and learn together.

2. tell stories. Telling stories is a lost art in much of Western culture and it’s actually really important

3. pick different baby books each week from the library. At least then there’s some variety!

Amazing

You definitely don't need to read them! Any picture book with not too many words is great. Lots of exaggeration and using different voices make it fun and engaging. Or sing song/rhyming type books like Each Peach Pear Plum or We're going on a bear hunt. I never bought those That's not my.....books as I thought they were tedious and knew I'd potentially have to read them over and over.

The library is great for preventing you from getting bored to tears of the same books as well.

"tell stories. Telling stories is a lost art in much of Western culture and it’s actually really important"

Yes I agree with this. My DCs are 5 & 7 and they regularly beg me to tell them stories about long running characters we've made up over the years. It can be hard to keep it up but they give me grace/jump in with ideas and when I'm on form there's nothing that makes them laugh more! I find it quite sweet that they enjoy my ramblings 😄

Nothing wrong with using picture books to get your baby used to the look, feel and general idea of books. You can get them used to stories at a much younger age, though. I started reading Winnie The Pooh to my eldest when she was just a few weeks old, and she often dozed off to the tales of the friends and their adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood. Fortunately she was fast asleep and didn't witness the (probably hormonally induced) blubbering mess into which I descended when it was finally time for Christopher Robin to go to school... 😭 😭 😭

I think OP’s baby might like Anna Karenina more.

Love this 😂

I just read books I wanted to at 8 months eg Dr Seuss, Lucy and Tom, Alfie, Tiger who came to tea. Topsy and Tim. Blue Kangaroo.

At about 12 months I read more of the ‘blue balloon’ books because my kids liked them.

You need the library at this age though or you’ll go mad.

Mine used to love interactive books with lift the flap. Spot the dog was good counting books and touch and feel. If you go for longer go for something repetitive we're going on a bear hunt etc not too long to lose they're interest. Have you got him or her a Library membership? They're never too young and often do sessions for tots.

Not to mention that greedy bastard tiger who are all the food in the house drank all the water from the taps. How rude!

My friend bought this for my daughter. She ate it. 🤣

Reading to babies isn't about reading. It's about the formation of sounds and words, the sound of your voice, the closeness and interaction. Read war and peace if it makes you happy. But there are plenty of fabulous childrens books which give great joy once you child starts interacting with books themselves.

It really doesn't matter if you are reading war & peace or the back of the cereal packet as long as you are reading.

My son had the Gruffalo, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, The Tiger who came to Tea, Each Peach Pear Plum and Peepo pretty much from birth, and he still likes them now, aged 2.

Op I couldn't stand those sort of Talk About 'ball' 'telephone' 'random object' type books.They did my head in. Truthfully they are amongst the very few books I've actually binned (most go to the charity shop).
It possibly didn't help the ones I had were circa 12 years old when I had them. And probably written 10-15 years before that.

Cars have changed shape, people no longer drive saloon cars. Telephones ☎️ no longer look like that. Tellys are flat not a big box. Who still has a radio 📻?

I much preferred picture books Julia Donaldson and the like.

There are better ones like Each Peach Pear Plum etc as others have said. Try more poetry? Get a good book of illustrated nursery rhymes and you can do a bit of pointing at the pictures and talking about what you can see when you feel like it. As well as nursery rhymes, classic children's poems such as The Jumblies by Edward Lear or The Owl and the Pussycat are much more entertaining.

Pre-verbal children benefit from hearing single words and very short sentences, as well as longer sentences and stories. So if you are reading a longer book make sure to point to the pictures and label them.

I think babies can get different things from different types of books.

Repetition, rhyming, simple associations, etc are all helpful for language development - understanding how sounds and concepts connect. They don't have to be boring though!

DC enjoys the 'Oi! Frog!" books, which are actually quite funny. Life is far too short to read bad books, so try your local library and see what you and your little one like best.

I find it helpful to think about why we're reading a particular thing; it gets me into the right mindset. When I'm reading a novel, it's probably for a different purpose than reading the news or a work-related journal. I might not enjoy something I'm reading for work in the same way as I'd enjoy something I'm reading for relaxation, but that doesn't mean it's not helpful or valuable to read it.

Books with sound effects are evil and should be banned, though.

Not as outing as you might think! Those books are very popular.

Miffy is cute and you can ad lib hilarious chats between the characters

I do both. In the day we do some books together. Looking touchy feel or flap books so he can turn the pages, interact etc.

When he’s in bed I read either my own book, or we are working through Winnie the Pooh compilation. The last book being about when rabbit kidnapped kangas baby which I thought might be a bit much for a bedtime story!