Natasha Fondren

Whoever says that Vampire Young Adult fiction is overdone, is wrong. In general, the YA section is VERY SMALL. Too small. I’m not reading anything but young adult fiction and graphic novels until I finish my YA novel, and I’m quickly running out of things to read.

Mostly because I like dark, which means I stick mostly to gothic or paranormal.

Last night, I woke up at 3:30 am, and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I finished Swoon by Nina Malkin. I was impressed, because it was one of the few unhappy endings I’ve ever read that I’ve been satisfied with. And I can probably count them on… well, right now, I can only think of one: Swoon.

I loved Fallen, by Lauren Kate, and Prophecy of the Sisters, by Michelle Zink, but both are merely beginnings; in YA, there’s apparently less pressure to make each book in a series a stand-alone. 

Which I think is a good thing.

I really want to read Christopher Pike’s Thirst series, but it’s not available on ebook. (Phooey.) Remember Christopher Pike? When I was growing up, I loved his teen horror books. I thought it was awesome to see his books out there.

I’ll wait until it comes out in ebook, though. Hopefully they’ll publicize it so I remember about it.

I’m behind on my book-a-day thing. I once wanted to catch up, but frankly, that would be an expensive endeavor. I talk like I can’t afford books, but it’s really that I can’t afford as many books as I read. We spend a lot on ebooks. I’m glad we don’t pay for internet or cable; all that money goes towards books. Many months, it’s “and then some.”

At least they’re all write-offable.

And finally, Random House has just shot to the top of the list as my favorite NY publisher. We all have things that are important to us, and to me, pricing and availability of ebooks is way up at #1. No, don’t tell me their boilerplate digital royalty rate, because that’s #2.

Can your wallet keep up with your reading pace? What are you reading, lately? Any particular genre? Ever run out of precisely what you’re in the mood for?

I’m still reading a book a day. I’m a bit behind, but I’ll catch up. I’ve re-read most of the Narnia series and am about halfway through the Oz series.

I also finished The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia. I was enraptured by this critical book at first; Laura Miller felt and understood and expressed all the love I’d had for Narnia, as a child.

…I’m wishing, with every bit of my self, for two things. First, I want a place I’ve read about in a book to really exist, and second, I want to be able to go there. I want this so much I’m pretty sure the misery of not getting it will kill me. For the rest of my life, I will never want anything quite so much again.

She also describes the betrayal I felt when someone suggested they had Christian symbolism and messages. I got over that, but upon reading the Narnia books in my thirties, I was stunned at his attitudes toward females and offended by his racism.

Laura Miller managed to keep her love for Narnia intact. My love for Narnia is still there, but it’s damaged. I see C.S. Lewis mucking in his world, and frankly, he should’ve stayed out of it.

The Oz books fared no better. The writing in the first was unbearable; in the second, annoying. By the fourth or fifth, it improved dramatically, so I can forgive that.

What I can’t forgive is the endless, unrelenting political satire and commentary in the Oz books. It ruined all the fun!

What is hilarious to me is that there has been some debate as to whether or not Baum did this purposely or at all. In fact, some even get quite aggressive in their idea that any politics in the Oz books are in the eye of the beholder.

Um, no. Uh, sorry, but you’re Just. Plain. Wrong.

There is no question at all that these books are riddled with political satire and commentary. Take The Marvelous Land of Oz. First he parodies the fears of those against the suffrage movement by having an army of girls march on Oz. They quickly win, because the men are so afraid of girls. Then they order the men to cook and watch the kids all the time. He redeems himself by making the next ruler of Oz a girl, but even that was just plain weird; he’d grown up as a boy, magically done so he would be safe.

Guess what? Baum was the secretary for the South Dakota suffrage organization. 

No politics? Really? I could give example after example. Rarely does even a page go by without some satire or commentary. And Baum was… an interesting man. He was known to give a speech at a Republican rally, and the next day, deliver the same speech at a Democratic one.

As an adult reading these, the political satire might have been interesting if I felt like doing a bit of research on the political landscape of his day, but I didn’t. It was irritating and intrusive.

I suppose the Oz series was written like some children’s movies, where they have inside jokes intended for only the adults to understand. (I hate that, also; inside jokes strike me as rude to those you know won’t understand them.)

For both series, I wanted to recapture the love and wonder I had felt for these worlds when I was young; instead, reading them was the destruction of it.

Part of why I’m reading so much this year is that I want books to be gateway into another world, again. I read too analytically. I want to love reading every bit as much as I did when I was young. I suppose that’s why I’ve chosen so many children’s books to start out my challenge.

I’m still searching for the feeling of wonder.

Any suggestions? Have you read any books lately that have swept you off your feet with a feeling of wonder and magic? Swept you into a whole new world?

The Book-A-Day Challenge is going great. I’m recapturing my love of reading and writing. The fact that I get to read 365 books this year makes me feel like I have plenty of time to re-read old favorites, which has been a wonderful treat. Technically, I’m two days behind, but I’m also halfway through a book in my car, and have made a dent in three of my slow-reads. I’ll catch up.

I’ve found all the Oz books online to download to my Kindle, which makes me happy. My children’s section, growing up, only had four or five, and I’d always wanted to read all of them. Books are so much more accessible now than they were then.

Much to my relief, all this reading is already making me a better writer.

I can totally see why my writing dwindled in the last four months: my reading had dwindled down to pretty much nothing! I’m not one of those writers who doesn’t read; I’m one of those writers who is entirely dependent upon reading in order to keep going.

I can’t get rid of the guilt I feel while indulging in reading, though. I feel like I should be writing more. Working out more. Being… productive. I feel like I’m being lazy. I’m just… sitting and reading for hours a day.

That’s silly, of course. Reading is part of the job, part of the training, part of the kit and kaboodle. Part of being productive.

Right? Or? What think you? Do you need reading to write? Or do you need to not read in order to write?

The blogiverse is a bit like a magic eight ball: it always has the answer to my problems. Today I’m trying to finish a story that I’ve been trying to finish for over a year. It has two alternating plots, two POVs. And I just can’t seem to finish it.

Then I read the Intern’s post, Annihilating the Arbitrary. (If she is not currently in your reader, you must add her. Now.)

(Have you added her yet?)

Going through my WIP, I’m realizing that the pairing of these two storylines is arbitrary. Well, not entirely. They are mostly there because they will please the reader. This is a series, and the main through-line characters have unfinished business that needs to be finished, but that’s not enough for a whole story. And the second plot is needed because it’s new and yet it’s what my readers want and expect.

But that’s not good enough. There needs to be a reason for this pairing.

I usually start with my theme/s and my through-lines and my character arcs, but this time I’ve either forgotten them, it seems. So I’m making a list. I’ve dropped all the seeds; now I just need to make them bloom. And I have to tie the two story-lines together at the end in one big climax, or else it will read like a soap opera.

What’s wrong with a soap opera, again?

And why the pictures of candy? Well, in my 365-books-in-a-year reading project, I’m re-reading some of my all-time favorites: the Chronicles of Narnia and the Harry Potter series. I want to make Turkish Delight and Treacle Fudge. I’ve read about both for years. It’s time for me to try them! Although I fear I’m going to be devastated if I hate Turkish Delight.

Thanks again for all the book recommendations. I’m still wading through them and trying to make my list and post it, but it might take awhile. In the meantime, if you’d like to friend me on GoodReads, I post what I’ve read every day.

What think you on arbitrary? And what foods from fiction have you always wondered about but never tried?

I started with a quick read. I don’t think I’ll blog about all 365 books I read this year, but this is the first, and this is a good one. I mean, it’s Neil Gaiman.

The Graveyard Book is one of those books that you connect with so well, you feel bits are written just for you. It’s also an inspiring reminder of how to live life—at least, how I want to live the rest of my life.

It’s about a boy, Nobody Owens, whose family is killed and he’s raised by ghosts in a graveyard, where he learns how to live life from the dead. Above is the “adult” cover, I’m told. Neil Gaiman’s books seem to work really well for both kids and adults, and it’s hard to pigeonhole some of them as either.

In the first part, there’s this quote that is so applicable to my recent decision:

“It’s like the people who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.”

I was afraid of that.

I purposely left bits of myself behind, LOL. And I’m happy to report that I am happy, annoyingly so! Bod, (short for Nobody) at the end of the story, finally leaves the graveyard, and these are his plans, which are my plans exactly!

“See the world,” said Bod. “Get into trouble. Get out of trouble again. Visit jungles and volcanoes and deserts and islands. And people. I want to meet an awful lot of people.”

The end also has another bit of wisdom:

Face your life
Its pain, its pleasure,
Leave no path untaken

“Leave no path untaken,” repeated Bod. “A difficult challenge, but I can try my best.”

It’s the sort of book you want to give as a graduation gift and make sure they read it and make sure they learn and apply its lessons well. But of course, that would sort of ruin the experience, wouldn’t it? Because it doesn’t read like a “lesson” book. It reads like a great adventure.

Below, Neil Gaiman does a 2-minute reading of one of my favorite parts, about a poet, Nehemiah Trot and his revenge on his critics. I think it was written for all of us writers!

(There’s a Q&A session, if you want to watch the whole talk at the National Book Festival.)

I used to read two or three books a night. That was after school, after homework, after playing outside, after swim practice, after watching TV and after practicing piano. (When I was young, I used to spend two hours watching TV after school. I’d play along with commercials or practice during commercials.)

So how is it that I seem to have less time to read now, and definitely have a lighter schedule than above?

I have been envious of Lauren Baratz-Logsted, ever since I learned she reads a book a day. Jealous in a good way: I like her, and am grateful because she was instrumental in getting me my first gig at BenBella Books. (As an aside, she has a great series going on at BiblioBuffet: “The Seven Stages of My Reading Life So Far.” Here’s Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, which is my favorite. I dream of working on the floor of a bookstore, even though the pay is abysmal!)

I have been wanting to do this for a long time, but I’ve decided it’s time. Between August 18, 2009 and August 17, 2010, I want to read 365 books.*

But now I need suggestions. Will you help? Feel free to answer none, one, a few, or all questions here or treat it like a meme and answer on your own blog. If you answer on your own blog, paste the link here, and I’ll link to you in the post.

• What book(s) made you a better writer?
• What book(s) made you cry?
• What book(s) made you laugh until you were in tears?
• What book(s) made you feel like you could conquer the world?
• What book(s) have you read three times or more?
• What book(s) kept you up all night reading?
• What book(s) do you want to read again?
• Any other recommendations?

1. Michelle posted a list on Magical Musings.
2. Kath posted a list on her blog, Writeful Mumblings.
3. Rachel posted a list on Facebook.
4. Katie also posted a list on Facebook and on her newly-designed, very pretty blog—check it out!
5. Starving Write Now has a list up on her blog.
6. Valerie posted a list on her blog, too!
7. Alyson Noel posted a list on her blog.
8. Aerin recommends all the 5-stars on her goodreads list.
9. Bee Nagel has a great goodreads list, too!

*If I get freakishly behind, I reserve the right to change it to 5 books per week (weekends off), for a total of 260 books. Don’t you love this fine print? Do you think I’m nuts? Okay, I am. I mean, I’ve read entire books backwards, just because I was curious to see what they looked like that way…