Dangerously Daring People: Read a book week!

[holdouttrout]

I know what you're thinking. "Read a book? But I read books all the time!"

But it makes sense, I swear! For one thing, books are awesome. For another thing, people throughout history have believed that books are some of the most dangerously daring objects ever created by man. More dangerous than operating heavy machinery while on cold medicine!

Okay, so banned book week isn't until like, September, but the Young Reader's Choice Award nominees are quietly stalking library bookshelves near you. And if there's one thing about YRCA books, it's that some of them are regarded as very daring indeed.

Looking for Alaska, in the senior division, is a book about Miles "Pudge" Halter and his friends and experiences at a boarding school in Florida. It tackles some pretty hefty issues, and even has an (hilarious) almost-sex scene (on which grounds it was challenged by parents at Depew High School near Buffalo, New York for being "pornographic").

Or Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, in the intermediate division, which has controversy following it simply because it's Harry Potter. (It also has some pretty mature themes.)

Of course, there are also some plain good reads among the nominees--and I don't think you can go too wrong with any of them. Personally, I love reading good YA literature, possibly even more than reading good "adult" literature. (I mean the normal fiction sections, you gutter-minded people.)

What books have you read recently that challenged you? Doesn't have to be YA or challenged...just challenging.

Comments

[zats-clear.livejournal.com]

not on any list of "do not reads" or "adult/young adult fiction" but The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a fascinating read. I am more cognizant of what I eat as a result and work even harder at reducing my carbon footprint.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I've heard of that book. I've just become more aware, recently, about the sheer amount of energy it takes to feed us these days. Yikes!

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

Corn is evil. See my upcoming rant on LJ, coming soon to a friends list near you.

and yea verily, there was corn syrup. high fructose for all!

[zats-clear.livejournal.com]

more evil than corn, which is more "opportunistic" than evil, are the white coats who keep coming up with insidious uses for the surplus of Zea Mays.

it all reminds me of the advent of baby formula, which is nothing more than a creative use of a dairy by-product and not the wonderfully nutritious superior to breast milk invention it has been touted to be.

*sigh*

Re: and yea verily, there was corn syrup. high fructose for all!

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

I tried to buy a week's worth of groceries yesterday, without buying anything with corn syrup in it. All I found was diet soda (which of course is nothing but deadly chemicals, no calories there!) and canned vegetables (yay sodium!). Seriously, when did they start putting corn syrup in mustard?

*wanders off muttering about the Maize God and the apocalypse*

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

I absolutely adore kids' sci-fi and fantasy, like the classic A Wrinkle in Time. I loved (and hated) the Animorphs series by KA Applegate, and her other series Everworld is good too. Both of those absolutely must be read in order, though. Then there are all the alleged "juvenile" novels by Heinlein. Good stuff there, particularly Tunnel in the Sky, which got a mention on SG-1. And anyone who hasn't read the Rats of NIHM is really missing out.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Animorphs! Oh, man. Those books are terrible/awesome. Terrible because there are, in my opinion, just a few too many of them, and awesome, because everyone ends up almost as screwed up as they ought to be. For a kid's series about heroes, it's unbelievable what she got away with. Man.

A Wrinkle in Time is a classic for a reason. I just read it fairly recently, and it's a lot shorter than I remembered! Still creepy, though.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

For a kid's series about heroes, it's unbelievable what she got away with. Man.

Isn't it just? They did cancel her series about apocalypse survivors resorting to cannibalism on the space shuttle, though.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Heh. Somehow, that doesn't surprise me.

[shutthef-up.livejournal.com]

You know, I've always enjoyed good YA fiction. I've certainly enjoyed the entire Harry Potter series, as has my 70-something father.

I'm always rather amused and surprised by those folks to object to it, based on the whole witchcraft thing. First of all, it couldn't be further from *real* witchcraft/wicca if it tried. Secondly, magic really has nothing to do with the larger themes of the books. Prejudice, personal choices and bravery in the face of evil are *far* more important.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

The people who loudly object to the books have never read them. They heard the word "wizard" and freaked out, and at least the ones I have talked to refuse to read even a paragraph, because they're positive it'll corrupt their sole, and possibly even that the books are the direct work of Satan, which is why everyone who has dared read has been blinded to the evil, or something. (The same person who said most of that to me also claimed that Buddha taught his followers to worship Satan. We're not talking rational debate here.)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Even though I admit the books are somewhat flawed, they are damn enjoyable and good books, full of characters who try to Do the Right Thing, even though they are not perfect.

So no, I don't get the witchcraft thing, either.

[supplyship.livejournal.com]

Yay, books! I posted about this in my journal last week, but I've been on this kick of reading combat narratives of those deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan. Talk about challenging reads! The latest one I'm reading is called "When I Wished I Was Here: Dispatches from Fallujah," (from the indie Crumpled Press) and it's just heartbreakingly beautiful.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I saw that! I didn't read it, but I saw it! *puts on list*

[zats-clear.livejournal.com]

read Three Cups of Tea yet? it is in queue on my reading table and husband absolutely loved it (he was deployed to Afghanistan)

[supplyship.livejournal.com]

No I haven't - but it looks fascinating! Thanks! *adds to list*

Up next (after "When I Wished I Was Here") is "Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq" which should come on Wednesday with my copy of "Ark of Truth," w00t!

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nice. I want to read 'Whales On Stilts!'. My local library is closed until April, though. Closed! Until April! *is suffering* It's for refurbishment, though, so that's a yay. I should maybe read 'Anansi Boys' - I'm pretty sure I have that on a shelf somewhere, as yet unread.

One dangerously daring set of YA books I keep meaning to re-read is Susan Coopers 'The Dark Is Rising' series. I read them when I was a kid, but I've forgotten pretty much everything about them except that they were weird and unsettling and I loved them. And Alan Garner's 'The Owl Service', too.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

The Dark is Rising are excellent. I think they stand up to a more adult reading, too. (I am not going to comment on the movie.)

I definitely need to read Anansi Boys. I think I own it, and I really really need to get around to you know, READING it.

Closed? How can they do such a thing? I live in a weird sort of in-between libraries place, so even if one were closed, I could go to another.

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair, I do live within a twenty-to-thirty-minute bus journey of about four other libraries - but the closed one is the big, central one for our area, and is literally a one minute walk from my house. I love it to pieces, and I miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiss it. But they're refurbishing it, so, y'know, it's good the place is popular enough to justify spending the money.

Yeah, I heard about that movie. I saw some comments on it, and decided, "Must read the books again!" :)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

is literally a one minute walk from my house

*is jealous*

Our library system here is pretty awesome, though. I've gotten extremely lazy smart and started reserving books online and making them come to the closest library--which is primarily a "pick up reserved books" library. It's pretty sweet. And in just a couple of weeks, I'm taking a pilgrimage to the city library. *choir starts singing*

[poetressforgod.livejournal.com]

which one? The beav or downtown one? Both are great. I ahve been to like 20 different branches of both systems over the past year. You know that by qualifying for one you automatically qualify for the other, right? Between the two, there are almost as many books as you could get thru orbis....

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

The downtown one. I've been to the one in the Ton lots--it's right by my parents' house--but I've never been inside the downtown one.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

I got distracted and never did answer the question properly -- what I'm reading now is The Druids by Peter Berresford Ellis, which attempts to sort fact from fiction in exploring what's known of the ancient Celts. Aside from lengthy things I didn't wish to know about Roman politics, it's a good read thus far.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

attempts to sort fact from fiction in exploring what's known of the ancient Celts.

I have gathered this is rather difficult--everyone has a mental image, and it's supposedly Very Very wrong.

[knightedrogue.livejournal.com]

Hah hah hah. After I finish the EU book I'm reading, I'm seriously going to tackle Jane Eyre, which, I've heard, is *still* dangerously daring.

LOL. I made it through a literature degree without reading Jane Eyre ... I take perverse pleasure in this. :P Our alma mater should perhaps be told of this, hah hah.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

If I named all the classics I *haven't* read, you'd wonder if I really *did* have a lit degree.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Also, Jane Eyre is fabulous. Just remember that as you trudge through a seemingly unrelated section in the near-end.

[caladria.livejournal.com]

I think the vast majority of my English lit. A level texts had porn in. Including the Shakespeare.

As far as challenging reads go, I'd like to jump on the Jodi Picoult bandwagon. Because.. man, those are tough questions she asks. And Asimov, because he's pithy and witty and likes to play with perceptions to get that final twist in.

I think I missed all the really big name YA authors the first time (I'm in the middle of the Wizard of Earthsea quartet for the first time), but Tamora Pierce is one that stood out for me - I spent a decade wanting to be one of her sheroes. And the Whitby Witches! I've got no idea whether the trilogy or Robin Jarvis as an author stands up to adult reading - it's been years since I've read them - but I remember them having an impact.

"Kid's books" are vastly underrated, even if I'm not really on the Harry Potter bandwagon.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Tamora Pierce is one of my YA heroes. She really knows her subjects, and her characters are kick-ass.

Oh, Shakespeare. If high school students knew how dirty you were, they'd love you for it.