5 reasons why the next book you read should be a YA

1. They deal with young people. Are you / have you been young? Then YA is relevant to you.

2. They are about growing up. Are you growing up / have you grown up? Then YA is relevant to you.

3. They often start straight away and keep good pace. You don’t have to yawn your way through 50 pages of boring introduction.

4. The dialogue in today's YA often kick butt with the dialogue in today's adult novels.

5. You would miss an enormous amount of awesome novels if you didn’t read them.

(Shamelessly stolen from RabenSjögren’s Twitter: @rabensjogren, Swedish Publishing House)

I have over the years never let go of YA, do I have to say I agree wholeheartedly with the arguments above? There’s something about YA that makes me care so much more for the characters than when reading a novel written for adults. It’s almost as if I feel that I won’t even bother with novels that aren’t YA.

Yeah, yeah … I’m missing out on some GREAT STUFF, but you know what: I don’t care! Gimmi more YA and I’ll be a happy reader. Next week (can you believe the library is CLOSED on Saturdays during summer?!) I’m going to ask them to get me some more of that good stuff, there are a few books I have my eye on, and if I’m lucky they’ll get them for me.

I’d like to buy more books, for keeps, but when I go through a book a day it gets a wee bit expensive. When I do find one I’m reluctant to return I go online and order a copy for myself. My last “I-don’t-wanna-let-you-go-novel” was one by Melina Marchetta’s Saving Francensca. I laughed, cried, giggled and just loved it! Yes, YOU read it too!

Yesterday, Friday the 27th, my husband and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary.

I KNOW, 10 years! Wohooo! *happy dance.*

We’re going to Gothenburg to hang out without the kids, have a nice lunch and spend some hours in our favourite bookstore: Science Fiction Bokhandeln (The Science Fiction Bookstore, if you hadn’t figured that out). I have a list of about ten books I’m going to look for, most of them are by Ursula K LeGuin.

It’s the best place for any sci fi, fantasy, horror, games, films, graphic novels … you dream it, they’ve got it! I’ll take some pics and post, so as you can see how awesome a bookstore it is.

Now I need my beauty sleep, or some sort of sleep, any kind will do just as well. Pumpkin’s teething and waking us up at night, if the rings under my eyes get any darker I’m going to be able to give Gollum a scare!

Comments

A Room of One’s Own

It was Virginia Woolf who said that women need a room of their own, a room where we will be able to write (fiction more specifically). I was lucky in that respect when I began to read and then later on when I started to write poetry and prose as a teenager. I was always encouraged to both read and write, and my father would take me to the library and introduce me to the wonderful world that is Science Fiction. Growing up I was sort of an only child, I never had to share my space with anyone. Okay, the “sort of an only child”-thing might need some explaining. My older sister, by 6 years, was severely handicapped ( Retts Syndrome ), so we could never have any kind of sisterly bond or do anything together. When she was 17 she died from heart failure, leaving my parents and I to continue life without her. Yes, it was an easier life because she needed so much help and we could never take any long trips; or if we did my parents had their hands full with her and sometimes I was l...

I Killed Him!

I’ve started writing my novel again; maybe it’s being back at school that’s given me all these ideas. What I have so far is almost half a book, it needs more detail and some fleshing out and maybe some more drama before I can say it’s finished. A friend has been reading what I have so far and has been asking me questions about why and who and where, making me see that some things weren’t as clear as I thought they were. She also pointed out that one of my characters does nothing for the story. He just tags along, saying hardly anything and I realized that I put him in only because I wanted the boys and girls to be an equal number. So now, when I’m rewriting and adding he’s been cut out. I killed him. Well, maybe not anything as drastic as that, but he’s gone from the story. This changed the story some (duh), and it’s now better. There’s more focus on my main character and those closest to her. After dragging myself to the gym today I now really feel the need to get started with...

For My Friends

A Long Way from Known Waters Nader groaned. ” That was the worse joke I ever heard. ” He closed his eyes and shook his head. ”What? It’s a classic!” Aldon’s voice cracked as he pretended to be insulted. With a shrug, he shimmied up the railing and secured the line he was supposed to be securing. ”I’d like to hear you tell a funnier one!” His voice was almost lost on the ocean wind. Nader narrowed his eyes as he watched Aldon scurry between the lines. With a small shake of his head he went back to coiling lines and making sure they were out of the way of the crew. He missed being on the Indenel, this smaller ship was too crowded and it was near impossible to find a spot to just sit and watch the ocean. Captain Arelel was relentless in finding chores for him to do. Even if they were useless ones, like recoiling already perfectly coiled rope. ”Nader!” The Captain’s voice cracked like a whip. Nader hoped he had managed to hide his jump of surprise, but t...

Viking Girl Scribbles

Search This Blog