holdouttrout: not your ordinary fish (Default)
holdouttrout ([personal profile] holdouttrout) wrote2008-03-10 08:31 am
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Dangerously Daring People: Read a book week!

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.
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[identity profile] pepper-field.livejournal.com 2008-03-10 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
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!" :)
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[identity profile] holdouttrout.livejournal.com 2008-03-10 06:35 pm (UTC)(link)
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*

[identity profile] poetressforgod.livejournal.com 2008-03-11 05:35 am (UTC)(link)
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....
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[identity profile] holdouttrout.livejournal.com 2008-03-11 02:56 pm (UTC)(link)
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.