The age of literacy.

I was going to save this post for my "things that made me go 'hmm'" round-up on Saturday, but I decided I just couldn't wait. Plus, the column I'm going to comment on was published today, and as a journalist, I have this urge to be "timely." In this post, I will describe my reaction to "Adults Should Read Adult Books," a short piece by magazine columnist Joel Stein. This column is part of a larger debate about young adult fiction in the New York Times opinion pages, and — fortunately — Mr. Stein seemed to be the only panelist who held a condescending view of the YA genre.

Source: twitpic.com via Chelsea on Pinterest

I tweeted a link to the article earlier today, and several of my Twitter followers shared my disgusted disbelief. Here are their responses (sorry for the screenshots; I've tried to embed the tweets but they always show up as just text):

Additionally, I checked the bitly listing for the article to see what people were saying. As you can see for yourself, the conversation was overwhelmingly negative toward Mr. Stein and/or in praise of the young adult fiction genre. When I realized I wasn't the only person who had strong feelings about Stein's point of view, I decided to devote more than a tweet to the subject. Hence, this blog post.

The Hunger Games vs. Uglies

Happy Hunger Games Week, everyone!

Photo via Pinterest

I'm participating in Sweet Green Tangerine's weekly book chat again. Today's prompt is: Share your favorite Dystopian novel. This is too perfect because I've been brainstorming this post idea since January and finally have an excuse to sit down and write it!

30-Day Book Challenge: Day 30

Day 30 – My favorite book of all time

Image via Goodreads

Les Miserables. Full disclosure: I don't know if this is my favorite book, but it is definitely my favorite story. I haven't read the book since I was 12, so I hope to be able to revisit it soon with my increased wealth of knowledge and maturity level, but when I read it back in the 7th grade, I remember there being a lot of long, boring chapters about the student revolution. I would get to one of those chapters, realize it was about the war and not my beloved characters from the Broadway adaptation, and skip it. But as far as stories go, Victor Hugo wove quite the tale of personal struggles, romance and societal challenges. I own a paperback version and downloaded a free version on my Kindle, so I definitely need to reread it soon.