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vovat on this one LESS than a week after he gave me these five things to write about!
Association Meme: Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.
1. Madeleine L'Engle -when I was in 4th grade I pulled this HORRIBLY UGLY vomit-green book off the school library shelf because I recognized the title --A Wrinkle In Time-- as one of those books They were always telling you were Good-- but because it was an ancient vomit-green tome of which the jacket had apparently been lost in the 60s, there was no synopsis to read, and I had absolutely NO idea what the book was about (apparently when They told you a book was Good They neglected to tell you WHY), so I read the first sentence-- then the first paragraph-- and just like that I was sucked in, did NOT put it down until I finished. That disgusting looking book was the greatest thing I'd ever read! I read the rest of the so-called Time Quartet then, discovered some of the other Murry-O'Keefe clan stories later, and somehow didn't manage to discover the Austins until college (atpunterschlagen's urging if I recall). But by that time I had reread Wrinkle far beyond the point of memorization, and every time I read it I got something new out of it. In my adult readings-- of all her books, fiction and nonfiction, children's and adult-- I figured out why I loved her so as an author. I didn't love or even LIKE everything she wrote, but she never failed to make me THINK. She herself described it as "asking the Big Questions," and I love that. I love the way she somehow fits the entire universe into each sentence. She is also the ONLY one of my favorite writers who is NOT, as a habit, funny, which is kind of interesting (though there are occasional ironic bits that make one snort and all).
2. The Beatles -When people ask you what your favorite band/artist/group/whatever is, I always feel a little guilty, because "the Beatles," while extremely true, feels almost like a cop-out answer. They're the Greatest Rock Group In the History of the World whether or not you actually LIKE them. My tastes just happen to tend toward great I suppose! They were Great because they both weren't afraid to take chances and do new and crazy things with their music AND they had a gift for a catchy song-- combine that together and you get Timeless Brilliance! You can TRY to say "Well, they didn't do anything that great, those little so-called 'innovations' you're talking about are all through rock music today," but you miss the point-- they are all through today's music BECAUSE THE BEATLES PUT THEM THERE FIRST! Before the Beatles rock music was perhaps RIGHTLY dismissed as faddish and uncreative, there just to be simple three-chord dance music. The Beatles added variety to songwriting, incorporating more complex structure and influences of many other genres. They used non-rock instruments, from sitars to entire orchestras to found items. They experimented with using the process of record production as a new instrument in and of itself-- what could be DONE with the recording, instead of just a straight recording of a performance. They pushed the envelope musically while somehow remaining very LISTENABLE! That's cool stuff.
3. Psychedelic Rock -upon becoming a Beatlemaniac I soon found that ONE of their many styles particularly spoke to me as a marginalized creative teenager. Psychedelic music's dreamy, slightly-off, unexpected sound just FIT with my own odd brainwaves-- I'm not saying I walk around Naturally Tripping all the time, I'm quite sane and don't usually hallucinate (though I DO occasionally have random Shifts in Perception, like I'll be driving somewhere and all the colors will suddenly seem brighter and everything is alive and the music is in the whole world and... okay maybe I should stop talking now), but I AM a bit odd, and I can relate to a bit odd; and maybe it was something about being a depressed teenager too, I'd been scared of much of the psychedelic music I'd heard as a kid, so now it was like embracing the scariness and taking control of it. I'm no longer as emotionally trapped and lonely as I was as a teenager, but I still LOVE that odd off-kilterness-- it still feels like a trip through my subconscious mind. And I have always had awesome dreams; I like having a tie to them in daylight!
4. Motherhood -is indescribable. Being the Most Important Person In the World to another human being is HUMBLING. Watching this person discover the world makes the world seem new to you, too. Having someone completely in your care takes you out of yourself, and you suddenly, for example, have a tolerance for bodily fluids that you never would have believed before. And, for the first few years, you are Cool, and not at all whatever useless nerdy crybaby you used to be. I grew up knowing the many Cool things about my Mom, though it's only as an adult I can see that she's just as reserved as me--never seemed to affect the person she was in OUR perception: super-intelligent (omniscient even?), in control, always dependable, full of interesting curiosities to share! And here it turns out I'm very like my mom as a mother. I can live with that.
5. The Honors College -I didn't want to go to my dad's alma mater, IUP, until he got this brochure for the Brand New Honors College: it sounded unique and creative so i applied, then I went with it. We were the first class, so there were lots of kinks to iron out, and craziness ensued both in and out of the classroom. But for ME the HC was the first place it felt Completely Safe to Be Myself. I know not all my friends there felt this way about it, but I appreciated the Geek Culture of Whitmyre. There I was not Some Lone Nerd, but a Unique Individual Nerd among the wide variety of other nerds also there! The variety made it special to me too-- that people of all interests, political leanings, and backgrounds were hanging out together happily. I could do my own thing and no one would think it too weird-- more than likely they'd think it cool-- and everyone else added their own varieties of weirdness to my life in return. Yes, there are things I thought didn't work so well or should have been changed or whatnot, but on the whole I am so glad I went there-- it helped me grow in so many ways!
---
Okay, then the really great part. So you know all those have-you-read booklists? You know how I always wanted to do one about the kind of books I actually read most often? Yay, apparently other YA geeks had the same thought. A gal from my library school class whose blog I stalk because it and she are cool (and she's far more active in Being a Real YA Librarian than me-- she's even on this year's--next year's?--the-one-for-this-year's-books-that-will-be-awarded-next-year's?-- Printz committee) just passed on THIS LIST (the first paragraph is hers, the rest of the instructions, apparently what was on Facebook):
"A group of YA librarians on Facebook put together a list of 100 "top" teen novels. "Top" goes in quotes because they freely admit this is something wholly unscientific. It's just meant to see what you've read and have a little fun.
The following list of books teens love, books teens should read, and books adults who serve teens should know about was compiled IN ABSOLUTELY NO SCIENTIFIC MANNER and should be taken with a very large grain of salt.
Instructions:
Put an "X" next to the books you've read
Put a "+" next to the books you LOVE
Put a "#" next to the books you plan on reading
Tally your "X"s at the bottom
Share with your friends!"
1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy / Douglas Adams X+
2. Kit's Wilderness / David Almond
3. Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian / Sherman Alexie #
4. Speak / Laurie Halse Anderson
5. Feed / M.T. Anderson
6. Flowers in the Attic / V.C. Andrews
7. 13 Reasons Why / Jay Asher #
8. Am I Blue? / Marion Dane Bauer (editor)
9. Audrey Wait! / Robin Benway #
10. Weetzie Bat / Francesca Lia Block X
11. Tangerine / Edward Bloor X
12. Forever / Judy Blume X
13. What I Saw and How I Lied / Judy Blundell #
14. Tyrell / Coe Booth
15. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants / Ann Brashares
16. A Great and Terrible Beauty / Libba Bray #
17. The Princess Diaries / Meg Cabot X
18. The Stranger / Albert Camus X (ACK! I couldn't get into this book in COLLEGE! How many actual teenagers do you think actually get into it?!)
19. Ender's Game / Orson Scott Card #
20. Postcards from No Man's Land / Aidan Chambers
21. Perks of Being a Wallflower / Stephen Chbosky
22. And Then There Were None / Agatha Christie X+ (greatest genre murder mystery EVER. I am so tickled that this is the Christie they picked for this list)
23. Gingerbread / Rachel Cohn
24. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist / Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
25. Artemis Fowl (series) / Eoin Colfer #
26. The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins # (still waiting to get my hands on a copy...)
27. The Midwife's Apprentice / Karen Cushman X
28. The Truth About Forever / Sarah Dessen
29. Little Brother / Cory Doctorow X
30. A Northern Light / Jennifer Donnelly
31. Tears of a Tiger / Sharon Draper X
32. The House of the Scorpion / Nancy Farmer #
33. Breathing Underwater / Alex Flinn (a girl in my middle school library was OBSESSED with this book)
34. Stardust / Neil Gaiman (I don't suppose seeing the movie counts...)
35. Annie on My Mind / Nancy Garden
36. What Happened to Cass McBride / Gail Giles
37. Fat Kid Rules the World / K.L. Going
38. Lord of the Flies / William Golding
39. Looking for Alaska / John Green
40. Bronx Masquerade / Nikki Grimes
41. Out of the Dust / Karen Hesse X
42. Hoot / Carl Hiaasen #
43. The Outsiders / S.E. Hinton X
44. Crank / Ellen Hopkins
45 The First Part Last / Angela Johnson
46. Blood and Chocolate / Annette Curtis Klause X
47. Arrow's Flight / Mercedes Lackey
48. Hattie Big Sky / Kirby Larson
49. To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee X
50. Boy Meets Boy / David Levithan
51. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks / E. Lockhart X+
52. The Giver / Lois Lowry X+
53. Number the Stars / Lois Lowry X+
54. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie / David Lubar
55. Inexcusable / Chris Lynch
56. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big, Round Things / Carolyn Mackler
57. Dragonsong / Anne McCaffrey X+
58. White Darkness / Geraldine McCaughrean
59. Sold / Patricia McCormick
60. Jellicoe Road / Melina Marchetta
61. Wicked Lovely / Melissa Marr
62. Twilight / Stephenie Meyer
63. Dairy Queen / Catherine Murdock
64. Fallen Angels / Walter Dean Myers X
65. Monster / Walter Dean Myers X
66. Step From Heaven / An Na
67. Mama Day / Gloria Naylor
68. The Keys to the Kingdom (series) / Garth Nix #
69. Sabriel / Garth Nix #
70. Airborn / Kenneth Oppel X+
71. Eragon / Christopher Paolini X
72. Hatchet / Gary Paulsen X (no plus, but way better than I'd expected for the many years I put off reading it)
73. Life As We Knew It / Susan Beth Pfeffer #
74. The Golden Compass / Phillip Pullman X+ (plus for that one, not so much for the rest in the trilogy, as I've mentioned when it's shown up on other lists)
75. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging / Louise Rennison X
76. The Lightning Thief / Rick Riordan X+
77. Always Running: La Vida Loca / Luis Rodriguez
78. how i live now / Meg Rosoff
79. Harry Potter (series) / J.K. Rowling X+ (interesting that they put the whole series for this, but not for some others above)
80. Holes / Louis Sachar X+
81. Catcher in the Rye / J. D. Salinger X
82. Push / Sapphire
83. Persepolis / Marjane Satrapi
84. Unwind / Neil Shusterman
85. Coldest Winter Ever / Sister Souljah
86. Stargirl / Jerry Spinelli X
87. Chanda's Secrets / Allan Stratton
88. Tale of One Bad Rat / Brian Talbot X
89. Rats Saw God / Rob Thomas X
90. Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien X+
91. Stuck in Neutral / Terry Trueman
92. Gossip Girl / Cecily Von Ziegesar
93. Uglies / Scott Westerfeld #
94. Every Time a Rainbow Dies / Rita Williams-Garcia
95. Pedro and Me / Judd Winick X
96. Hard Love / Ellen Wittlinger
97. American Born Chinese / Gene Luen Yang
98. Elsewhere / Gabrielle Zevin
99. I am the Messenger / Markus Zusak
100. The Book Thief / Markus Zusak #
Read: 34. Kind of pathetic, but hey, at least I've HEARD of most of the books on the list, could tell you what they're about, and even make recommendations of them based on reading tastes!
Loved: 11 (doesn't count "liked," either)
On the To Be Read List: 15. And you wonder why I don't have time for rereading or reading massive adult tomes I'm only marginally interested in. And that's only of TITLES ON THIS LIST HERE! And doesn't count a few books on this list that I might read at some point though I don't have any particular plans to read at this moment!
Oh, I'll happily tell you about any particular titles on this list you're curious about, too. :) This is so dorky and I LURVE it.
vovat on this one LESS than a week after he gave me these five things to write about!Association Meme: Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.
1. Madeleine L'Engle -when I was in 4th grade I pulled this HORRIBLY UGLY vomit-green book off the school library shelf because I recognized the title --A Wrinkle In Time-- as one of those books They were always telling you were Good-- but because it was an ancient vomit-green tome of which the jacket had apparently been lost in the 60s, there was no synopsis to read, and I had absolutely NO idea what the book was about (apparently when They told you a book was Good They neglected to tell you WHY), so I read the first sentence-- then the first paragraph-- and just like that I was sucked in, did NOT put it down until I finished. That disgusting looking book was the greatest thing I'd ever read! I read the rest of the so-called Time Quartet then, discovered some of the other Murry-O'Keefe clan stories later, and somehow didn't manage to discover the Austins until college (at
punterschlagen's urging if I recall). But by that time I had reread Wrinkle far beyond the point of memorization, and every time I read it I got something new out of it. In my adult readings-- of all her books, fiction and nonfiction, children's and adult-- I figured out why I loved her so as an author. I didn't love or even LIKE everything she wrote, but she never failed to make me THINK. She herself described it as "asking the Big Questions," and I love that. I love the way she somehow fits the entire universe into each sentence. She is also the ONLY one of my favorite writers who is NOT, as a habit, funny, which is kind of interesting (though there are occasional ironic bits that make one snort and all). 2. The Beatles -When people ask you what your favorite band/artist/group/whatever is, I always feel a little guilty, because "the Beatles," while extremely true, feels almost like a cop-out answer. They're the Greatest Rock Group In the History of the World whether or not you actually LIKE them. My tastes just happen to tend toward great I suppose! They were Great because they both weren't afraid to take chances and do new and crazy things with their music AND they had a gift for a catchy song-- combine that together and you get Timeless Brilliance! You can TRY to say "Well, they didn't do anything that great, those little so-called 'innovations' you're talking about are all through rock music today," but you miss the point-- they are all through today's music BECAUSE THE BEATLES PUT THEM THERE FIRST! Before the Beatles rock music was perhaps RIGHTLY dismissed as faddish and uncreative, there just to be simple three-chord dance music. The Beatles added variety to songwriting, incorporating more complex structure and influences of many other genres. They used non-rock instruments, from sitars to entire orchestras to found items. They experimented with using the process of record production as a new instrument in and of itself-- what could be DONE with the recording, instead of just a straight recording of a performance. They pushed the envelope musically while somehow remaining very LISTENABLE! That's cool stuff.
3. Psychedelic Rock -upon becoming a Beatlemaniac I soon found that ONE of their many styles particularly spoke to me as a marginalized creative teenager. Psychedelic music's dreamy, slightly-off, unexpected sound just FIT with my own odd brainwaves-- I'm not saying I walk around Naturally Tripping all the time, I'm quite sane and don't usually hallucinate (though I DO occasionally have random Shifts in Perception, like I'll be driving somewhere and all the colors will suddenly seem brighter and everything is alive and the music is in the whole world and... okay maybe I should stop talking now), but I AM a bit odd, and I can relate to a bit odd; and maybe it was something about being a depressed teenager too, I'd been scared of much of the psychedelic music I'd heard as a kid, so now it was like embracing the scariness and taking control of it. I'm no longer as emotionally trapped and lonely as I was as a teenager, but I still LOVE that odd off-kilterness-- it still feels like a trip through my subconscious mind. And I have always had awesome dreams; I like having a tie to them in daylight!
4. Motherhood -is indescribable. Being the Most Important Person In the World to another human being is HUMBLING. Watching this person discover the world makes the world seem new to you, too. Having someone completely in your care takes you out of yourself, and you suddenly, for example, have a tolerance for bodily fluids that you never would have believed before. And, for the first few years, you are Cool, and not at all whatever useless nerdy crybaby you used to be. I grew up knowing the many Cool things about my Mom, though it's only as an adult I can see that she's just as reserved as me--never seemed to affect the person she was in OUR perception: super-intelligent (omniscient even?), in control, always dependable, full of interesting curiosities to share! And here it turns out I'm very like my mom as a mother. I can live with that.
5. The Honors College -I didn't want to go to my dad's alma mater, IUP, until he got this brochure for the Brand New Honors College: it sounded unique and creative so i applied, then I went with it. We were the first class, so there were lots of kinks to iron out, and craziness ensued both in and out of the classroom. But for ME the HC was the first place it felt Completely Safe to Be Myself. I know not all my friends there felt this way about it, but I appreciated the Geek Culture of Whitmyre. There I was not Some Lone Nerd, but a Unique Individual Nerd among the wide variety of other nerds also there! The variety made it special to me too-- that people of all interests, political leanings, and backgrounds were hanging out together happily. I could do my own thing and no one would think it too weird-- more than likely they'd think it cool-- and everyone else added their own varieties of weirdness to my life in return. Yes, there are things I thought didn't work so well or should have been changed or whatnot, but on the whole I am so glad I went there-- it helped me grow in so many ways!
---
Okay, then the really great part. So you know all those have-you-read booklists? You know how I always wanted to do one about the kind of books I actually read most often? Yay, apparently other YA geeks had the same thought. A gal from my library school class whose blog I stalk because it and she are cool (and she's far more active in Being a Real YA Librarian than me-- she's even on this year's--next year's?--the-one-for-this-year's-books-that-will-be-awarded-next-year's?-- Printz committee) just passed on THIS LIST (the first paragraph is hers, the rest of the instructions, apparently what was on Facebook):
"A group of YA librarians on Facebook put together a list of 100 "top" teen novels. "Top" goes in quotes because they freely admit this is something wholly unscientific. It's just meant to see what you've read and have a little fun.
The following list of books teens love, books teens should read, and books adults who serve teens should know about was compiled IN ABSOLUTELY NO SCIENTIFIC MANNER and should be taken with a very large grain of salt.
Instructions:
Put an "X" next to the books you've read
Put a "+" next to the books you LOVE
Put a "#" next to the books you plan on reading
Tally your "X"s at the bottom
Share with your friends!"
1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy / Douglas Adams X+
2. Kit's Wilderness / David Almond
3. Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian / Sherman Alexie #
4. Speak / Laurie Halse Anderson
5. Feed / M.T. Anderson
6. Flowers in the Attic / V.C. Andrews
7. 13 Reasons Why / Jay Asher #
8. Am I Blue? / Marion Dane Bauer (editor)
9. Audrey Wait! / Robin Benway #
10. Weetzie Bat / Francesca Lia Block X
11. Tangerine / Edward Bloor X
12. Forever / Judy Blume X
13. What I Saw and How I Lied / Judy Blundell #
14. Tyrell / Coe Booth
15. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants / Ann Brashares
16. A Great and Terrible Beauty / Libba Bray #
17. The Princess Diaries / Meg Cabot X
18. The Stranger / Albert Camus X (ACK! I couldn't get into this book in COLLEGE! How many actual teenagers do you think actually get into it?!)
19. Ender's Game / Orson Scott Card #
20. Postcards from No Man's Land / Aidan Chambers
21. Perks of Being a Wallflower / Stephen Chbosky
22. And Then There Were None / Agatha Christie X+ (greatest genre murder mystery EVER. I am so tickled that this is the Christie they picked for this list)
23. Gingerbread / Rachel Cohn
24. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist / Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
25. Artemis Fowl (series) / Eoin Colfer #
26. The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins # (still waiting to get my hands on a copy...)
27. The Midwife's Apprentice / Karen Cushman X
28. The Truth About Forever / Sarah Dessen
29. Little Brother / Cory Doctorow X
30. A Northern Light / Jennifer Donnelly
31. Tears of a Tiger / Sharon Draper X
32. The House of the Scorpion / Nancy Farmer #
33. Breathing Underwater / Alex Flinn (a girl in my middle school library was OBSESSED with this book)
34. Stardust / Neil Gaiman (I don't suppose seeing the movie counts...)
35. Annie on My Mind / Nancy Garden
36. What Happened to Cass McBride / Gail Giles
37. Fat Kid Rules the World / K.L. Going
38. Lord of the Flies / William Golding
39. Looking for Alaska / John Green
40. Bronx Masquerade / Nikki Grimes
41. Out of the Dust / Karen Hesse X
42. Hoot / Carl Hiaasen #
43. The Outsiders / S.E. Hinton X
44. Crank / Ellen Hopkins
45 The First Part Last / Angela Johnson
46. Blood and Chocolate / Annette Curtis Klause X
47. Arrow's Flight / Mercedes Lackey
48. Hattie Big Sky / Kirby Larson
49. To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee X
50. Boy Meets Boy / David Levithan
51. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks / E. Lockhart X+
52. The Giver / Lois Lowry X+
53. Number the Stars / Lois Lowry X+
54. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie / David Lubar
55. Inexcusable / Chris Lynch
56. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big, Round Things / Carolyn Mackler
57. Dragonsong / Anne McCaffrey X+
58. White Darkness / Geraldine McCaughrean
59. Sold / Patricia McCormick
60. Jellicoe Road / Melina Marchetta
61. Wicked Lovely / Melissa Marr
62. Twilight / Stephenie Meyer
63. Dairy Queen / Catherine Murdock
64. Fallen Angels / Walter Dean Myers X
65. Monster / Walter Dean Myers X
66. Step From Heaven / An Na
67. Mama Day / Gloria Naylor
68. The Keys to the Kingdom (series) / Garth Nix #
69. Sabriel / Garth Nix #
70. Airborn / Kenneth Oppel X+
71. Eragon / Christopher Paolini X
72. Hatchet / Gary Paulsen X (no plus, but way better than I'd expected for the many years I put off reading it)
73. Life As We Knew It / Susan Beth Pfeffer #
74. The Golden Compass / Phillip Pullman X+ (plus for that one, not so much for the rest in the trilogy, as I've mentioned when it's shown up on other lists)
75. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging / Louise Rennison X
76. The Lightning Thief / Rick Riordan X+
77. Always Running: La Vida Loca / Luis Rodriguez
78. how i live now / Meg Rosoff
79. Harry Potter (series) / J.K. Rowling X+ (interesting that they put the whole series for this, but not for some others above)
80. Holes / Louis Sachar X+
81. Catcher in the Rye / J. D. Salinger X
82. Push / Sapphire
83. Persepolis / Marjane Satrapi
84. Unwind / Neil Shusterman
85. Coldest Winter Ever / Sister Souljah
86. Stargirl / Jerry Spinelli X
87. Chanda's Secrets / Allan Stratton
88. Tale of One Bad Rat / Brian Talbot X
89. Rats Saw God / Rob Thomas X
90. Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien X+
91. Stuck in Neutral / Terry Trueman
92. Gossip Girl / Cecily Von Ziegesar
93. Uglies / Scott Westerfeld #
94. Every Time a Rainbow Dies / Rita Williams-Garcia
95. Pedro and Me / Judd Winick X
96. Hard Love / Ellen Wittlinger
97. American Born Chinese / Gene Luen Yang
98. Elsewhere / Gabrielle Zevin
99. I am the Messenger / Markus Zusak
100. The Book Thief / Markus Zusak #
Read: 34. Kind of pathetic, but hey, at least I've HEARD of most of the books on the list, could tell you what they're about, and even make recommendations of them based on reading tastes!
Loved: 11 (doesn't count "liked," either)
On the To Be Read List: 15. And you wonder why I don't have time for rereading or reading massive adult tomes I'm only marginally interested in. And that's only of TITLES ON THIS LIST HERE! And doesn't count a few books on this list that I might read at some point though I don't have any particular plans to read at this moment!
Oh, I'll happily tell you about any particular titles on this list you're curious about, too. :) This is so dorky and I LURVE it.
