I have a confession to make...

...if it's part of the series, I'll probably read it! I can't help myself.

I don't remember there being nearly as many book series when I was a kid. Let's see...there were The Little House books, The Chronicles of Narnia, Ramona Quimby, The Boxcar Children. I know there were more, but those are the few I was most familiar with. But now...now it seems every author is writing a series with trilogies being the most popular. Don't get me wrong, I love it and can't help myself. I mean I might need a 12 step program to stop sending all my money to publishers. I don't even know how many books I've pre-ordered in the past three years. It's a genius plot to ensure job security by authors because I'm convinced that the world is populated by people like me who are compelled to read until the bitter end. Honestly, I'm disappointed when a book is a stand alone. I think the reason I'm so drawn to the idea of a series is because I get so totally and completely wrapped up in the creation of the author that I crave more of it.

I've started to learn my lesson when it comes to reading a novel series. It's pure agony waiting for the next book to be published. Rule: Don't read anything that doesn't already have at least three books written in the series. Being a teacher and librarian makes following that rule particularly difficult as I try to stay abreast of what's new for my students to read. This means, unfortunately, that I'm constantly waiting for the next installment of a gripping tale. Luckily, most of what I read these days is YA and the turn around on the next novel can be fairly quick. I have had to adopt a new rule: Don't tell other people (especially impatient ones) about a series that is still being written!

Why not? Because, I will inevitably get an angry phone call from a frustrated reader! That's what happened when I introduced my brother to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. He couldn't believe that upon finishing Catching Fire he would have to wait a meager two months before reading Mockingjay! I mean I had been waiting five months longer than him! I believe his actual words might have been, "How dare you tell me to read a series that I have to wait to be finished!" I'm more careful now and he's been very gracious and not gotten mad about waiting a few short weeks for the sequel to Veronica Roth's Divergent (Insurgent which hits stores on Tuesday, but more about that in a later post.)

I on the other hand feel that I'm in a constant state of wanting. I've recently joined a site that allows it's members to download pre-pubs to their mobile device for free. Of course, I was drawn to a science fiction novel set it Los Angeles in a future where some of the population is suffering from a mutated rabies virus that turns them into cannibals. I almost fell off the elliptical machine at the gym when I finished the book because the ending was so unsatisfying! The author clearly left it open for a sequel. Great! Awesome! Fantastic! Looking forward to it! Except The Weepers: The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker won't be available for purchase until May 15th which means I'll be waiting a long time for rest of the story!

The bottom line: don't turn your nose up to a series! Don't assume that if the book is part of a series it is less than stellar. Instead, pick a series and commit. In my experience, many of them get better as they go on. As you invest in the series, you are usually rewarded with greater depth of character which always draws you in even more.

If you're tired of dystopia...

 

I realized some months ago while looking at my reading record for the year that I seem to currently have an obsession with science-fiction. Who would have thought?! While I've never really gotten into space and alien stories, I can't get enough of time travel and future societies! But let's face it, future societies almost always mean a dystopia, and while I love dystopian fiction and the stories of characters foraging ahead and fighting to get their humanity back, they can be depressing and dark if that's all you read! Insert The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler, a humorous science-fiction tale that has the ability to resonate with the high schooler in all of us!

Instead of a sinister tale of a bleak future for mankind, the reader peers into the inner turmoil that we all carry around regardless of age. That nagging worry of what our personal futures hold. Will I be happy? Will I land my dream job? What is my dream job? Will I meet my perfect match? What will my children be like? Will I have children? The list goes on an on and is ever changing at each stage of our lives! The novel follows Emma and Josh, high school students in 1996. When they upload AOL onto Emma's new personal computer, they are immediately taken to a strange website called Facebook. Since Facebook hasn't been invented yet, the two get a tiny glimpse of their lives ten years in the future. They become obsessive about checking their posts and finding out who they are married to and whether or not they are happy with the way life turned out. Emma thinks she isn't happy in the future and sets out to change it. As Emma bases her current decisions on what she thinks her future holds, she effectively 'messes up' Josh's perfect future life with the prettiest (and wealthiest) girl in high school. Josh, of course, isn't very happy with the changes that Emma causes and they must decide if knowing the future before it happens is desirable or healthy.

Nearly every page in this book was a piece of nostalgia for me! It brought me back to my own high school experience. I was a senior in 1996, and I remember the familiar scratchy sound of a computer connecting to the Internet. I didn't even start using email until my sophomore year of college. The pop culture references made by Emma and Josh transported me back to high school when a particular song received plenty of play time on the radio or a technology was new and exciting. Beyond the way the authors made me recall a time in my life that I rarely reminisce on, the central theme of making decisions and fretting over the future still hit home even 16 years after high school graduation. Asher and Mackler couldn't help themselves and are clearly commenting on our society today and our willingness to over share extremely personal as well as the mundane details of our lives. Emma wonders that her future self would post something as inane as eating macaroni and cheese for dinner and is horrified that she would discuss her unhappiness in marriage for all to see on the Internet. I myself am grossly guilty of sharing the silly details of my life on Facebook under the guise that someone cares what I made for dinner.

My how our lives have changed! I can't really be the only one who writes a post about a restaurant or bar I'm at in the hopes of making a friend 'jealous' so they will write a snarky and funny comment that will lead to fun banter back and forth!

Never enough time...

I have been in love with books for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories involve being read to, so it is no surprise to me that I have carried this love of reading into adulthood! It is sheer joy to me that my job now requires me to read as many books as possible! I have always been frustrated with my inability to stay abreast of new children's and YA literature let alone adult fiction. My mother's aunt currently lives with my parents and spends an extensive part of her day reading. It occurred to me while on the phone with my mother that there is a part of me that is longing for old age when life's worries begin to fall away and I have time...time just to read everything I never got around to...books I missed out on while in high school, books I meant to read 3 years ago, books that stay perpetually in a pile on my nightstand. I'm flat out jealous of my 80+ great aunt who reads to her heart's content everyday!

I'm hoping to use this blog to write about the books I'm reading and my response to them...how they make me feel, what I like or don't like, what I'm excited about, and what I recommend for students. I envision an outlet for talking about the books that I read (since one of my favorite discussion partners now lives on the other side of the country.) If I grab some followers along the way that add their own opinions and suggestions, great! If it ends up that I'm just typing away into cyberspace without anyone listening...at least I'll have a record from here on out of what I've read. I really should have started this years ago!

Now...what book to start with...?