Wednesday, June 19, 2013
I have enjoyed and learned a lot from this exercise. Most basically, it has helped me in word processing ( I do not use it much in my library work, so the mechanics of the blog were relatively challenging to me at the beginning.) Writing book reviews has been a great joy, it has improved my critical skills and forced me to consciously evaluate the quality and content of my creations throughout various revisions. The information about review sites, booklists, critical sites was extremely valuable and helped break me out of the usual places I go to find information about media. Reading other librarian's blogs was a real eye opener --how differently we all view and respond to the same question! Just when I thought I had a most ideal response to a question, I read somebody else's blog which had an equally legitimate, and completely different answer -- this really has expanded my knowledge and added to my respect for my colleagues. It has also forced me to think about divergent ways to learn and create and how important these are to younger readers who are growing up in an almost 180 degree different learning environment from the one I experienced . Although we all have a structurally similar brain, our view of the world, our methods of creating and disseminating information, the very structure of our thoughts has been completely transformed by the computer- this is the most basic difference among the generations at this time and that revelation is one of the keys to providing excellent customer service.
If children are our future ( which they obviously are) then book trailers are also part of the future of book marketing. I read a lot of online news sites and lately I have been noticing that story links are starting more and more to lead to videos. This is intensely annoying to me because I tend to view reading and watching as two different and separate entities -- this is one of the reasons I have so much trouble with foreign films, I simply cannot coordinate reading the subtitles and watching the films effectively -- it results in a very unpleasant viewing experience for me. This is also why I have so much trouble with graphic novels. But I am old and was not brought up to be visually oriented -- we did not learn visually when I went to school, we learned by reading and discussion-after we read and discussed, then visual reinforcement may have been added as a treat -- so evidently my brain has developed differently from today's people. Young people today are intensely visual, therefore we are getting more visual links on news sites, critical sites, blog sites. I viewed a few book trailers from popular teen books, Warm Bodies, Divergent, Poison Princess. They all had a high viewership ( not viral, but high). Warm Bodies and Divergent were extremely professional productions -- WB had striking and stark visuals accompanied by reading and written reviews, Divergent's was only about 45 seconds long, totally symbolic and visual with very powerful music. I also often view short book trailers on television and, I have to admit, sometimes the production does at least pique my interest in the book. I don't think that at this time book trailers are making a huge impact but I predict that they certainly will in the future simply because our new adults are innured to the visual in their learning process. That is why the young adult trailers are more popular than the adult trailers, different ages, different brains. I cannot see these advertisements as being particularly useful for RA. They certainly are not balanced criticisms of the book and the very, very visual ones do not convey much about the plot or characters. The book trailer for Poison Princess, however, was quite helpful in elucidating plot and characters because it was just a straight discussion by Kresley Cole about the origin and import of different plot elements -- so I guess it depends upon type of trailer, the ones which are purely visual or musical are of no help but author discussions and online critiques can be of value.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Pain, Parties, Work Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953
Just to be up front, I personally do not like Sylvia Plath, her abandonment of her children and disdain for her family turn my stomach a little. I very rarely make judgements about authors and I don't know why I make the exception for her -- maybe it is because so many young women view her as some kind of role model and I think that is misguided-- no matter how good your poetry is it does no good for your children if you choose to commit suicide when they are toddlers -- and maybe it is because I have gained some perspective and learned to prioritize because I have been fortunate to live much longer than she did. Nevertheless, I like The Bell Jar . That metaphor for depression is absolutely spot on -- certainly we have all felt that heavy, airless, suffocation that clots the mind and slows the body . It is the mental equivalent of iron deficiency or an asthma attack. The lack of oxygen darkens and narrows the vision. This book is a memoir of the Plath's life during the time in which the The Bell Jar takes place. It is based on the memories of the other ladies who joined Sylvia as guest editors for Madamoiselle magazine in 1953. Sylvia, the brilliant young writer on the cusp of a magnificent career, decked out in fifties glamor, the full, ballet length dresses with cinched-in waists, which exaggerated and enhanced the female form, the intensely red lips and nails which advertised female sexuality, the smooth pageboys , the mandatory gloves, matching hats, bags and shoes-- combine this plethora of clothing and cosmetics with a small, airless , broiling hotel room in one of the hottest summers in memory and you have your bell jar, the physical setting of Sylvia's most exciting summer . The fifties -- glamour - a wonderful time to be a woman -- well, no, because by and large no matter how brilliant and creative and excellent you may have been, the expectation for all women was full time wife and motherhood -- and this dip into exciting careerism in New York's publishing industry only sharpened that dichotomy between desire and ultimate duty providing for some pretty intense internal pressure. Sylvia's colleagues relate the externals of Sylvia's journey in The Bell Jar, her hard work with interviews and articles, her photographic shoots for the college issue, her bout with food poisoning, her poisonous dates, her male admirers, her final evening, throwing her New York wardrobe off the high-rise roof, feeding it to the night. That hot, high, fast summer of the Rosenbergs. The book is a perfect companion to Sylvia's memoir, the same progression of events from two points of view, theirs objective, hers slightly crazy, intensely subjective. Not all the memories are good ones, though, for Sylvia disappointed many with her fictionalization of them in The Bell Jar. Upon reading that book, a few discovered what Sylvia really thought of them back then and it was not pleasant to learn- they felt cheated, exposed and misrepresented. Sylvia herself swore that her characters and the events portrayed within the book were fiction, based on reality, but really, the events, the people, the setting, they are all the same viewed through the prism of Sylvia's intense and sometimes harsh judgement. Yet all of the ladies interviewed confessed deep admiration Sylvia' s originality and energy and none of them judged her negatively for her final decision. This book is a short, sweet read for Sylvia admirers and those curious about the facts about that memorable summer.
Just to be up front, I personally do not like Sylvia Plath, her abandonment of her children and disdain for her family turn my stomach a little. I very rarely make judgements about authors and I don't know why I make the exception for her -- maybe it is because so many young women view her as some kind of role model and I think that is misguided-- no matter how good your poetry is it does no good for your children if you choose to commit suicide when they are toddlers -- and maybe it is because I have gained some perspective and learned to prioritize because I have been fortunate to live much longer than she did. Nevertheless, I like The Bell Jar . That metaphor for depression is absolutely spot on -- certainly we have all felt that heavy, airless, suffocation that clots the mind and slows the body . It is the mental equivalent of iron deficiency or an asthma attack. The lack of oxygen darkens and narrows the vision. This book is a memoir of the Plath's life during the time in which the The Bell Jar takes place. It is based on the memories of the other ladies who joined Sylvia as guest editors for Madamoiselle magazine in 1953. Sylvia, the brilliant young writer on the cusp of a magnificent career, decked out in fifties glamor, the full, ballet length dresses with cinched-in waists, which exaggerated and enhanced the female form, the intensely red lips and nails which advertised female sexuality, the smooth pageboys , the mandatory gloves, matching hats, bags and shoes-- combine this plethora of clothing and cosmetics with a small, airless , broiling hotel room in one of the hottest summers in memory and you have your bell jar, the physical setting of Sylvia's most exciting summer . The fifties -- glamour - a wonderful time to be a woman -- well, no, because by and large no matter how brilliant and creative and excellent you may have been, the expectation for all women was full time wife and motherhood -- and this dip into exciting careerism in New York's publishing industry only sharpened that dichotomy between desire and ultimate duty providing for some pretty intense internal pressure. Sylvia's colleagues relate the externals of Sylvia's journey in The Bell Jar, her hard work with interviews and articles, her photographic shoots for the college issue, her bout with food poisoning, her poisonous dates, her male admirers, her final evening, throwing her New York wardrobe off the high-rise roof, feeding it to the night. That hot, high, fast summer of the Rosenbergs. The book is a perfect companion to Sylvia's memoir, the same progression of events from two points of view, theirs objective, hers slightly crazy, intensely subjective. Not all the memories are good ones, though, for Sylvia disappointed many with her fictionalization of them in The Bell Jar. Upon reading that book, a few discovered what Sylvia really thought of them back then and it was not pleasant to learn- they felt cheated, exposed and misrepresented. Sylvia herself swore that her characters and the events portrayed within the book were fiction, based on reality, but really, the events, the people, the setting, they are all the same viewed through the prism of Sylvia's intense and sometimes harsh judgement. Yet all of the ladies interviewed confessed deep admiration Sylvia' s originality and energy and none of them judged her negatively for her final decision. This book is a short, sweet read for Sylvia admirers and those curious about the facts about that memorable summer.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
When Ann Rule wrote her first book The Stranger Beside Me, she was a former cop, a writer of true crime for pulp magazines, a struggling divorcee with five young children and a volunteer for a suicide hotline. Her fellow hotline volunteer just happened to be Ted Bundy, serial killer extraordinaire, whose subsequent kills, arrrests, escapes, trials and execution resulted in a spate of books, character studies and psychological debates. But Ann's was the first study and , really, the most intimate, because she actually knew Bundy in real life, followed his activities over many years, chatted with him over lunch, commiserated with him over his legal entanglements, wrote him letters in prison, conveyed messages to his girlfriends all the while trying to convince herself that he was innocent -- simply a victim of circumstance. Ann Rule is a calm, clear, laconic writer balancing fact and supposition, thoroughly researching the circumstances and the victims of each of Ted's atrocities. She is particularly attuned to the tragedy of the victims and the unending anguish of their families -- she avoids the dehumanizing details of each crime and presents Ted's victims as complete human beings, gracious and lovely young ladies on the cusp of adulthood and all the exhilarating adventures that would bring. Her newest redaction of this iconic work is particularly interesting for she presents letters and conversations with young women who were almost Ted's chosen -- ladies who by fate or grace managed to escape. There are many such testimonies in the book -- well, Ted was a busy boy as we all know. This book is really an icon of early true crime -- an absolute must read for anybody who follows the genre -- the subject is dark and horrific but Rule's writing is full of grace and compassion for the lost women. In subsequent books by other authors, the true sick and vile horror of the monster that was Bundy is revealed. Ann Rule does not dwell on these disgusting details, I think, out of respect for the victims and their loved ones. I admire her for this because it elevates the genre of true crime which, at times, reads like a gross violation of the dignity of the murdered. Rule's books never make the reader feel dirty or invasive because she herself does not exhibit these traits. Her work is a serious investigation of a very, very sick person. She never drags the reader down to the level of her repellent subject. For fiction I may recommend Defending Jacob.
To complete this assignment I wrote comments to Brice and Monty.
To complete this assignment I wrote comments to Brice and Monty.
John Krakauer's first book Into the Wild is the story of sensitive, reclusive Christopher McCandless, who abandons his family and future to live his own particular adventure as Alex Supertramp, walking, hitching, and jumping freight trains in pursuit of the elusive existential journey of self-discovery. Through his letters and journals, observations of his fellow tramps and occasional employers, anguished memories of his parents and sister, we follow him from his affluent home in suburbs of Washington DC, to the wheatfields of South Dakota, the rubber tramp camps of the southwest and finally to his cherished goal, Alaska. This book is more than a character discovery, however, for Krakauer leads us through the history of these one man odysseys, from Everett Ruess, to Jon Waterman and introduces us to a bevy of Chris's fellow travellers, the lost and forgotten, their back stories and memories. Chris's places and literal journeys are important, but his effect on people and their subsequent influence on him are the crux of this book. There are a lot of opinions about Chris -- the young view him as some sort of existential hero, the old and more experienced as an arrogant fool blinded by the romance of the road and the solitary life. Krakauer acknowledges these disagreements and , at the same time, presents a full and compassionate portrait of a very young and struggling soul whose illusions are gradually stripped away leaving him truly naked and defenseless. I recommend this book for adventurers, philosophers, spiritual travelers, parents and young people. It is a deep study of a fleeting moment in a young man's life, his great and absolute joy of discovery and his terrible final fear of the consequences of his enthusiasm. For fiction, I would recommend Jack London's short story "To Light a Fire".
Non Fiction
1. True Crime is primarily in 364 although some is in biography as well. I would recommend Erik Larson's Devil in the White City (364.1523L) or Ann Rule's newest edition of Stranger Beside Me (364.1523 R)
2. The classification of non-fiction travel narrative depends on the country or countries visited. Paul Theroux's Dark Star Safari (916.04 T) is classified in African travel while Tahir Shah's Caliph's House is classified in 964 D, the history and culture of Morocco.
3. Biography can be included in the Bio section, History , Sports, Business -- that classification for which the subject is noted. Thus John Krakauer's Into the Wild, bio of doomed Alaskan adventurer Chris McCandless in Bio Mcc and President in the Family about Thomas Jefferson by Woodson in 973.46 W.
4. Disaster Narratives -- classified depending on what kind of disaster it is. -- if it is about mountain climbing such as Krakauer's Into the Thin Air, 796.522 K, or The Graves are Walking by Kelly (941.5081 K) classified in the history and culture of Ireland - about the Irish Holocaust- or Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room (333.79M) by McLean, in the business and finance section.
1. True Crime is primarily in 364 although some is in biography as well. I would recommend Erik Larson's Devil in the White City (364.1523L) or Ann Rule's newest edition of Stranger Beside Me (364.1523 R)
2. The classification of non-fiction travel narrative depends on the country or countries visited. Paul Theroux's Dark Star Safari (916.04 T) is classified in African travel while Tahir Shah's Caliph's House is classified in 964 D, the history and culture of Morocco.
3. Biography can be included in the Bio section, History , Sports, Business -- that classification for which the subject is noted. Thus John Krakauer's Into the Wild, bio of doomed Alaskan adventurer Chris McCandless in Bio Mcc and President in the Family about Thomas Jefferson by Woodson in 973.46 W.
4. Disaster Narratives -- classified depending on what kind of disaster it is. -- if it is about mountain climbing such as Krakauer's Into the Thin Air, 796.522 K, or The Graves are Walking by Kelly (941.5081 K) classified in the history and culture of Ireland - about the Irish Holocaust- or Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room (333.79M) by McLean, in the business and finance section.
Friday, June 7, 2013
Since I have gotten a whole lot older than I ever thought I would, I have been tempted by many things that were forbidden to young Catholic ladies back in the day and , I must admit, I have been acting out a bit in both thought and deed. I have been immersing myself in paranormal fantasy books, staring at HBO and Showtime late night fare with my jaw dropped and dreaming of just walking out, leaving everything, pets, kids, responsibilities, huge collections of things and moving to Morocco or Uzbekistan ( I'll take my husband with me) The idea of a garish tattoo dedicated to some long dead pet has crossed my mind and I sometimes imagine myself with a turquoise streak in my hair.. Now what is this all about you ask? In spite of my efforts to evolve and taste new experiences,there are some things I will never be able to do. I will never be able to get my nose pierced or actually enjoy and understand Manga or really, really find any motivation to spend enormous amounts of time blogging or reading blogs on Tumblr. I finally signed up for a Tumblr account today in order to examine the Cassandra Clare blogsite -- actually there is a lot of blogging and reblogging and fansites and artsites, and Twitter chatter about Cassandra, most dealing with the newest entry in her tarot series (little did I know how popular tarot is amongst adolescents!). Tumblr is very broad and very shallow and there is just too much multi-tasking involved for me to actively enjoy or gain anything useful from this particular site. Tweets in particular nauseate me, I mean how self-involved can you get? I will continue to view this site ( at least a few more times) but I doubt that I will revise my opinion- I mean it makes Facebook look like the Encyclopedia Britannica.
On the other hand, Stacked, quite obviously a project of love by two librarians, draws me in and involves me immediately. The reviews are delightful book talks which spark the imagination and leave you begging for more information. The reviewers are deeply knowledgeable about young adult literature and are able to offer constructive criticism and historical perspective to the works they write about. In addition, they offer suggestions for further reading. The site is a serious and substantial contribution to readers advisory and yet, it does not take itself seriously. The essays are light and easily digestible despite their thoughtful and complex content. Because it is written by only two librarians (it does take contributions under advisement), it is cohesive, offering insightful commentary, comparing and contrasting various books. So Stacked --adult site, Tumblr-- teen site. Stacked is deep and linear, Tumblr appears shallow and all over the page. I am going to persist on Tumblr however since maybe I am just hitting the wrong blogs -- I have lots of different interests so, perhaps, I will find something that excites me if I investigate further.
On the other hand, Stacked, quite obviously a project of love by two librarians, draws me in and involves me immediately. The reviews are delightful book talks which spark the imagination and leave you begging for more information. The reviewers are deeply knowledgeable about young adult literature and are able to offer constructive criticism and historical perspective to the works they write about. In addition, they offer suggestions for further reading. The site is a serious and substantial contribution to readers advisory and yet, it does not take itself seriously. The essays are light and easily digestible despite their thoughtful and complex content. Because it is written by only two librarians (it does take contributions under advisement), it is cohesive, offering insightful commentary, comparing and contrasting various books. So Stacked --adult site, Tumblr-- teen site. Stacked is deep and linear, Tumblr appears shallow and all over the page. I am going to persist on Tumblr however since maybe I am just hitting the wrong blogs -- I have lots of different interests so, perhaps, I will find something that excites me if I investigate further.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
I examined Harper Teen and LB Teen
Harperteen is a very thorough site which advertises and updates works by some of the most significant Y writers, notably Veronica Roth of Divergent , the prolific Avi, Kathryn Lasky, Meg Cabot,Walter Dean Myers and Terry Pratchett. It features book reviews, interviews (written and visual), links to newsletters, official websites and blogsites, movie tie-ins, live chat. The content is not particularly deep or analytic or memorable, but it is not supposed to be -- this a news site updating teens on media and popular culture.
LB teen deals primarily with books, less with the cultural phenomena that stems from the books -- The list of authors is impressive, though not so much as Harper. Cornelia Funk, Darren Shan, James Patterson most notably. Live chats with authors are advertised and older chats are presented in archive. There are some meatier offerings to teachers and librarians on the site, educator guides, book talks, ways by which books can be found by theme. This website is less visual, colorful and ADD than Harpers-- less attractive, I think, to teens, more attractive to the adults who recommend the books to teens -- the colors are more sedate, there are fewer funky links and less teen language used.
What I gather from both these sites and simply from my own observations is that many, many of new YA books are written for young ladies by female authors. They feature the strong, quirky female character facing real life or dystopian challenges which by and large she overcomes via her special abilities (innate abilities, sometimes magic--but usually abilities which come from within as opposed to learned skills). Most of them are narrated by the major female character. Many seem to be written to empower teenage girls and make them more aware of their ability to influence their environment. I think that is all well and good although, , as an adult, I have to acknowledge that hard earned useful skills combined with a positive attitude are much more vaulable to our world than magic or lore. But I am old-school, more Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Diary of a Young Girl, than Gossip Girl or Wither. I positively enjoy reading many of these books, but they are not books that I would return to read, they do not build character -- They are written for immediate pleasure, not lasting thought. What I don't understand is why more books are not being written for young men --maybe it is because young men simply are not as attracted to fiction as the ladies. I have to say, though, that those books which feature male characters are far more thought provoking and long lasting than teen girl reads. Walter Dean Myers, Gary Paulsen, Orson Scott Card, S.E. Hinton, Andrew Horowitz, Neil Gaiman-- better writers, deeper message, more enduring and complex, less self involved and self serving -- books that can be read by all genders and ages.I have to ask myself is this plethora of dystopian girl lit really doing a disservice to teen girls-- either that or underestimating them. The good thing is that teens read all kinds of books -- by and large do not limit themselves to one type of read and they also are able to weed out the good from the bad , the fad from the enduring classic.
Harperteen is a very thorough site which advertises and updates works by some of the most significant Y writers, notably Veronica Roth of Divergent , the prolific Avi, Kathryn Lasky, Meg Cabot,Walter Dean Myers and Terry Pratchett. It features book reviews, interviews (written and visual), links to newsletters, official websites and blogsites, movie tie-ins, live chat. The content is not particularly deep or analytic or memorable, but it is not supposed to be -- this a news site updating teens on media and popular culture.
LB teen deals primarily with books, less with the cultural phenomena that stems from the books -- The list of authors is impressive, though not so much as Harper. Cornelia Funk, Darren Shan, James Patterson most notably. Live chats with authors are advertised and older chats are presented in archive. There are some meatier offerings to teachers and librarians on the site, educator guides, book talks, ways by which books can be found by theme. This website is less visual, colorful and ADD than Harpers-- less attractive, I think, to teens, more attractive to the adults who recommend the books to teens -- the colors are more sedate, there are fewer funky links and less teen language used.
What I gather from both these sites and simply from my own observations is that many, many of new YA books are written for young ladies by female authors. They feature the strong, quirky female character facing real life or dystopian challenges which by and large she overcomes via her special abilities (innate abilities, sometimes magic--but usually abilities which come from within as opposed to learned skills). Most of them are narrated by the major female character. Many seem to be written to empower teenage girls and make them more aware of their ability to influence their environment. I think that is all well and good although, , as an adult, I have to acknowledge that hard earned useful skills combined with a positive attitude are much more vaulable to our world than magic or lore. But I am old-school, more Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Diary of a Young Girl, than Gossip Girl or Wither. I positively enjoy reading many of these books, but they are not books that I would return to read, they do not build character -- They are written for immediate pleasure, not lasting thought. What I don't understand is why more books are not being written for young men --maybe it is because young men simply are not as attracted to fiction as the ladies. I have to say, though, that those books which feature male characters are far more thought provoking and long lasting than teen girl reads. Walter Dean Myers, Gary Paulsen, Orson Scott Card, S.E. Hinton, Andrew Horowitz, Neil Gaiman-- better writers, deeper message, more enduring and complex, less self involved and self serving -- books that can be read by all genders and ages.I have to ask myself is this plethora of dystopian girl lit really doing a disservice to teen girls-- either that or underestimating them. The good thing is that teens read all kinds of books -- by and large do not limit themselves to one type of read and they also are able to weed out the good from the bad , the fad from the enduring classic.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Assignment 7
This dystopian flowchart is just down my alley -- It will help me choose more books.. I have read a lot of the more notable dystopian works. I have tried to read quite a few more of them but many are poorly written, improbable or contain worlds which just bore me to death and I do not continue. The other day I was scanning the new Y fiction and noticed that probably a good half of it was either dystopian, paranormal romance or paranormal fiction. (Privately, I think this is an unfortunate trend -- People can profit from reading about real world problems and solutions as well -- of how all age groups can contribute to a less dystopian world. But it is the market right now.) So far, for me, aside from the Hunger Games, the best dystopian reads have been Shusterman's Unwind series, Divergent series by Veronica Roth, and the Shipbreaker series by Bacigalupi. I have not enjoyed any of the strange "world without love" or arranged marriage series such as Matched, Wither or Delirium. I have also just finished the 5th Wave which received excellent reviews but, for me , was just meh -- I am just not that invested in the characters.
I have a lot of reservations about New Adult as a distinct category -- I have read a little of it and it is basically just poorly written fiction about young adults. People 18-24 are fully capable of reading and comprehending any books that older adults read -- they can also appreciate and criticize and learn from these books -- Books are our extensions into worlds, ideas, emotions, solutions, etc, which we have not yet nor may ever experience. New Adult fiction does not provide this very special leap into the unknown--it does not particulary inspire deep thought nor does it broaden our experiences and open new worlds. There is nothing wrong with New Adult books, but there is nothing particularly special that I can see about them either--As reads they are usually well below a young adult reader's capabilities, but all of us read below our levels at times. I guess carving out a category for them is a good marketing technique and is a good way for authors and publishers to make extra money.It is possible to write absolutely brilliant young adult books-- but, I think, by definition, the New Adult category is just too poorly defined and written to order to ever produce absolutely inspirational literature, full of new experiences and ideas to ponder. It falls more into the genre of Romance or cozy Mystery or not so good fiction. (btw,in response to the last paragraph of this article, I do not think that John Green's novels should go anywhere near 50 shades or NA fiction -- I mean he is an excellent writer, his dialog is stunning , his characters are superbly defined; nor do I think that NA fiction should be thrown into the same dump as 50 which is rather shoddily written erotica. Throw all the poorly written erotica together with the paranormal romance. All this being said about NA, it is a perfectly legitimate genre to write and read -- kind of like first chapter books for adults.
An excellent book is an excellent book no matter for whom it is written. So why shouldn't adult readers want to read excellent young adult fiction which is full of imagination and ideas? It is great escape reading , big concepts are usually simplified, characters less complex and subtle and ,very often, the best of these books transcend young adult cliches -- eg the last volume of the Hunger Games, the whole Harry Potter series, the first volume of Shipbreaker. So we have books that overlap age categories -- it has always been true. Dickens can be read by young and old alike, as can Milne , or Mark Twain or C.S. Lewis, or Roald Dahl.
I have a lot of reservations about New Adult as a distinct category -- I have read a little of it and it is basically just poorly written fiction about young adults. People 18-24 are fully capable of reading and comprehending any books that older adults read -- they can also appreciate and criticize and learn from these books -- Books are our extensions into worlds, ideas, emotions, solutions, etc, which we have not yet nor may ever experience. New Adult fiction does not provide this very special leap into the unknown--it does not particulary inspire deep thought nor does it broaden our experiences and open new worlds. There is nothing wrong with New Adult books, but there is nothing particularly special that I can see about them either--As reads they are usually well below a young adult reader's capabilities, but all of us read below our levels at times. I guess carving out a category for them is a good marketing technique and is a good way for authors and publishers to make extra money.It is possible to write absolutely brilliant young adult books-- but, I think, by definition, the New Adult category is just too poorly defined and written to order to ever produce absolutely inspirational literature, full of new experiences and ideas to ponder. It falls more into the genre of Romance or cozy Mystery or not so good fiction. (btw,in response to the last paragraph of this article, I do not think that John Green's novels should go anywhere near 50 shades or NA fiction -- I mean he is an excellent writer, his dialog is stunning , his characters are superbly defined; nor do I think that NA fiction should be thrown into the same dump as 50 which is rather shoddily written erotica. Throw all the poorly written erotica together with the paranormal romance. All this being said about NA, it is a perfectly legitimate genre to write and read -- kind of like first chapter books for adults.
An excellent book is an excellent book no matter for whom it is written. So why shouldn't adult readers want to read excellent young adult fiction which is full of imagination and ideas? It is great escape reading , big concepts are usually simplified, characters less complex and subtle and ,very often, the best of these books transcend young adult cliches -- eg the last volume of the Hunger Games, the whole Harry Potter series, the first volume of Shipbreaker. So we have books that overlap age categories -- it has always been true. Dickens can be read by young and old alike, as can Milne , or Mark Twain or C.S. Lewis, or Roald Dahl.
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