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Odds & Ends On The Web: November 17th Edition

11/17/2012

7 Comments

 
Picture
Writing these Odds & Ends posts for the past nine months or so has really brought home to me how cyclical some of these bookish “issues” really are.  The publishing industry is dying.  X, y, and z will be the death of great literature and “real” book criticism is a thing of the past.  Nobody reads anymore, and if they do it doesn’t count because everyone knows that e-reading isn’t “real” reading.  And of course, our very favorite outcry: the young people!  They don’t read enough/they read too much!  Their books are too dark/not dark enough and they are severely lacking in boys/girls/flying sparkly unicorns!!!

Aaaand so on….

This week The Book Lady’s Blog perfectly captures our frustration with “10 Bookish Conversations I’m Totally Over.”

Malinda Lo also responds to last week’s outcry against YA literature’s abandonment of boys with her post titled “YA Fiction and the Many Possibilities of Manhood” – a very insightful article about the fluid nature of gender and “manhood.”  We tend to think that YA literature already has many, many books that describe the experiences of boys and will appeal to boys (spoiler alert: not all of these books are written by men!  Shocker!).  Look out for our wall of books that will appeal to the boys of YA – coming next week!

The Weeklings also has this hilarious “lit-erotic photo spread” of the Dudes of YA, which you should all definitely check out.

Shannon Hale also responds to claims that Twilight is damaging to young readers.  I personally (Catie) can see both sides to this argument, and the comments for the article contain some really interesting discussion points.  Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary to censor any type of literature from young people.  Twilight may not represent what I would consider a healthy relationship, but I think it’s a great jumping off place for a discussion about what constitutes a healthy relationship.  What do you guys think?

The Kansas State Public Library has started a campaign in the social media-verse against the pricing and lending policies of major publishers for libraries, criticizing the elevated pricing, lending caps, and restrictions that most major publishers place on public libraries.

‘Tis the season for best-of lists and here are a few that came out last week:
  • Amazon’s Best Books of the Year
  • Library Journal’s Best 2012 YA Books For Adults
  • And of course, the National Book Award winners were announced.

In very exciting news, Kathleen Duey announced that she’s finished with the third book in the Resurrection of Magic series and that it has officially gone to her editor!  I know Tatiana and I will be eagerly awaiting that release and probably begging all around town for an ARC of it.

In other exciting (?) news, Gillian Flynn has signed a deal for an as yet untitled young adult book.  Are we excited about this or perhaps a little nervous?  Hopefully she won’t tone down her dark side for YA.

Here are a few great interviews from last week:
  • Alpha Reader interviews Courtney Summers (and she talks a bit about All the Rage!).
  • Laini Taylor shares five writing tips over at Publisher’s Weekly.
  • Moira Young talks about the Dustlands series over at Shelf Awareness.

And finally, for all of our artsy friends – do dream of designing the covers for your favorite books someday?  (Looking at you, Trinity and Noelle!)  Simon & Schuster is running a contest right now to find a new design for the anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451, and has extended the deadline for submissions until December 7th!  So get right on that!


7 Comments
Keertana @ Ivy Book Bindings link
11/17/2012 01:05:52 am

I love this edition of Odds and Ends! I agree wholeheartedly with the "10 Bookish Conversation I Am Totally Over" - especially the ebook vs. print books debate. >.< I think the most interesting article by far is the one about Twilight. I feel as if I'm one of those people who read the book and recognized it immediately for something that WASN'T romantic, BUT at the same time, who are we to say how a book influences someone? It isn't as if The Hunger Games has inspired women to become particularly athletic all of a sudden and take up self-defense or archery, so why should Bella inspire women to get into bad relationships? I don't have a problem with people reading Twilight, but I do think it's the reason for so many weak protagonists and relationships in YA Literature. Nearly ALL of the insta-love, love triangle, or bad relationship-type novels have been released recently. Before that, YA was dominated by fantasy and books concerning magic thanks to the booming success of Harry Potter. While I personally don't like Twilight because I never like to see a female, whether she be real or a character, enter into a bad relationship (like in Beautiful Disaster), I have no right to tell people not to read it or to judge the impact it has. Yup, definitely love that article...it definitely got me thinking and the examples were brilliant as well. Thanks for sharing, Catie! :)

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Molly link
11/17/2012 02:18:11 am

I love your odds & Ends posts, but I feel it is important to point out that it is the Kansas State library behind the social media campaign about the availability of Ebooks to libraries.

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Catie (The Readventurer) link
11/17/2012 08:46:04 am

Oh, thanks Molly! I'll change it.

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Tatiana (The Readventurer) link
11/17/2012 04:38:43 am

I was quite surprised that erotic spread was pretty hot. Those YA authors really went for it:)

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VeganYANerds link
11/17/2012 05:14:23 am

Yes, all of the bookish drama does tend to be the same stuff :/

Haha, that photo spread was hilarious - thanks for that!

And I agree re. Twilight. If it gets kids reading, that is a good thing, as long as they actually stop and think/talk about the book and why certain things aren't ok irl

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Heidi link
11/18/2012 12:11:07 am

Bwahaha, the dudes of YA thing pretty much made my morning. Seriously laughing out loud, particularly at Lish McBride.

I am SO EXCITED that Kathleen Duey has finished writing the third book...maybe it'll be out next year? I picked up Sacred Scars at the library this week.

Also I'm with you, Catie, on Twilight. I think it has some problematic stuff, but that keeping kids from reading it isn't the right solution. Using it to start a conversation is. It's also a great gateway series to get kids interested in reading period, and a good jumping off point for suggesting other reads.

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Belle link
11/18/2012 10:14:59 am

Great point about the cyclical nature of bookish news.
To that I'd add I'm sick of hearing: "Book bloggers are destroying the industry! Book bloggers are not real reviewers! Negative reviews are bullying!"

I don't believe in censoring books and while I agree Twilight features an unhealthy relationship I don't necessarily think girls internalise that (well I hope not). I used to be obsessed with VC Andrews, which features the worst relationships of all time (so much incest and abuse!), and I didn't grow up to be in an abusive - or, er, incestuous - relationship.

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