Cramming for a really big test

The past several weeks I have been thumbing through books trying to figure out how to be a good dad. Often one has to look at mom books to get any real clue and, honestly, most books don't really offer much satisfaction to those suffering the anxiety and excitement of quickly impending parenthood. They are either too serious or overly clinical when I want a book that is educational and funny: I want to be edutained with some acknowledgment that this experience is emotional and awesome/confusing and scary.


I stumbled upon Michael Lewis's Home Game and was a pretty impressed. He is a funny writer, although the biggest chuckles generally emanate from the vignettes in which Lewis is an insensitive and/or clueless jerk. He admits to being an awkward father, occasionally less interested than he suspects he is supposed to be and, while claiming to be "modern," ultimately makes his wife pull the heavy load. His wife, by the way, is Tabitha Soren the VJ of many Gen X-ish men and women's youthful dreams. Lewis is stunningly honest admitting post-partum ambivalence towards his infant children and even a little child resentment in so much as his life sometimes isn't as cool as it used to be (or maybe I am reading too much?). But this level of honesty is refreshing at the same time as it is shocking: I am pretty confident that even if I have some of the foibles that Lewis admits to, I likely won't have them all.

I also like the book My Mother Wears Combat Boots, although I think that is mostly because owning it gets me two more punk rock points than I deserve and the fact that I bought it at a leftist bookstore in Seattle (they sold real live zines and patches and things) also gets me a point or two. I read parts of it, but can't imagine taking my toddler to anything like a Subhumans concert (argh. there goes my punk rock points).