If ever there was inspiration, or a blog writing role model, it's Miss Eliza!  Over at Strange and Random Happenstance, she's managed to build up a decent following, publish 50 posts AND host a contest with a great number of entries... since what, the end of May? 

Check out the fabulous contest with lots of bibliophile booty!

And I'll start writing again.  I swear.

 

Back in May 2007, I decided to set a quota for my reading - at least ten books per month.  Admittedly, "books" could be stretched to include graphic novels, but the point of the quota was to diversify.  I didn't intend to read ten novels a month, but absorb ten ideas - from fiction, non-fiction and everything in between.  I managed to successfully meet this quota until late last year.  What was the change?  Writing!  As I began writing more, I began reading less.  Also, because I found that I was writing mostly about a particular topic, knitting, I had to be even more up on it than usual, so I started knitting more.  I've found that I'm incapable of maintaining my level of reading while knitting like a fiend (although I am considering dabbling in audio books, which I haven't done since my car commuting days).  So, something had to give.  I'm trying to continue to write about knitting, though perhaps with a little less fervor (and probably at the expense of those lovely review copies), and I'm letting myself fall back into books at the expense of finished objects.  Books and the knowledge they contain have always been a top priority, and they are nudging back ahead in the race.  With only a few days left in the month, I think I'll make my quota again, and my soul already feels the accompanying bliss. 

I previously introduced the Discard Heap, and here I shovel on the first set of books.  I'm usually pretty selective when choosing what to read - there are simply too many great books out there to grab one blindly.  On occasion, however, we all pick something up on a whim, or because the cover caught our eyes, or just because it sounds interesting.  With perhaps a single exception, all of the books below were chosen without any research - we clearly reap what we sow. 

 

Princess at the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George:  I believe this one is mis-marketed to teens, as the lack of complexity (I'll have to figure out how to quantify this) makes it more appropriate for a younger set.  It was enjoyable, but unremarkable.

 

Seeing Red by Frank Bedoir:  As the second book in The Looking Glass Wars, Seeing Red simply falls flat.  What was at least an entertaining twist on the Alice we know seemed to run out of steam in this sequel.

 

Octavian Nothing by M. T. Anderson:  Yes, I know this won a Newberry Medal, but that doesn't mean I have to like it!  While an interesting concept, the philosophy seemed both pretentious and too mature for its audience.

 

Ever by Gail Carson Levine:  I read this nearly a year ago and I can't remember a damn thing about it, so clearly unmemorable.  I enjoy some of her other books quite a bit, but this one just wasn't on par.

 

Eragon, Eldest and Brisingr by Christopher Paolini:  Okay, I'm clearly following the story, and it has its merits, but this still falls lightly onto the discard heap.  Poor writing, misused words (calling all copy editors), and story line sprinkled with bits that smell faintly of other books means I wouldn't recommend these to anyone.  Just because I eat McDonald's occasionally doesn't mean I condone it!

 

Runemarks by Joanne Harris:  As a true discard, this one was all-over terrible, and I stopped about half way through.  Talk about long-winded!  It was also a strange forum for rephrasing Norse mythology.  Perhaps all the copies found in local used bookstores should have been a clue.

 

When I first conceived of the idea for readerreader.org, I saw it as a go-to place for reading up on new or fantastic books.  I wanted the reader to walk away with a better understanding of the options in a genre or a hankerin' to devour what I've hailed as the latest and greatest.  I also thought, in the back of my head, that I'd put up reviews for those books that I didn't enjoy, but now that seems counter-productive.  When I devote time and energy to a review, it's going to be for writing that's worth it.  The rest will end up here - in the discard heap. 

 

In Your Well-Read Life, a great little book about organizing your reading lists and goals, Steve Levine (of Levenger) creates, among the to-read and have-read lists, a place just for the discards - those books that simply didn't make the cut.  These are books that you stopped reading because they simply weren't worth your time, and I'll add in the books that I've finished, but didn't prove their quality (at least to me).

 

After a brief review of my reads for the last year or two (made quite simply by Goodreads), I'll post some discard summaries, then will periodically post when the mood strikes.  Nobody is on a steady diet of mind-blowing reads, so the discard posts will add some balance, illustrating how great the chosen few are relative to the whole picture.

I've been reading quite a lot of Young Adult (YA) fiction lately, so when I finally get down to business and post the first few reviews, they'll likely be within that genre.  So why YA?  I have many thoughts about this growing audience of readers and about the fact that we target such a specific audience, but that'll have to wait.  For now, why am I, a full-fledged adult, spending so much time on books for kids?  With a few exceptions, I keep to teen fiction, since the writing style and level are comparable to adult fiction.  I'm not sure that YA is really a "genre" in itself, but just the audience towards which books are marketed.  Sure, they have a few commonalities, like character age and the challenges and issues unique to teens.  And, let us not forget, the inherent drama and narcissism associated with being a raging ball of hormones.  However, aside from this common ground, YA fiction really spans all the traditional genres. 

 

While I have little interest or identification with YA fiction that deals with the trials and tribulations of the modern teen, there seems to be a trend towards science fiction and fantasy, or generally escapist themes - again not suprising, considering the audience.  As an escapist reader myself, YA fiction has a lot to offer.  I throw these books in the mix of nonfiction and technical writing that are so often part of my diet.  Not all YA fiction, however, is of a simpler structure or theme.  Take Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, or D.M. Cornish's Lamplighter, both of which are equally at home among their adult-targeted counterparts.  Essentially, YA fiction offers a comparable range of fantastic plots and complex characters, sprinkled with fresh settings and perspectives.  Frequently more digestible than the adult variety, they also tend to be better written than your average contemporary adult fiction.  The aesthetically pleasing and oft-compact packaging doesn't hurt, either.

 

The big, burning question is: What is ReaderReader all about?  What's the point?  Well, I have a few ideas on that score, but I think we'll just have to see where we end up.

One thing I can say for sure is that this blog is about being a reader.  Not a critic.  Not a publisher.  Not anyone with a vested interest in, well, anything but their own literary enjoyment.  It's about reading and enjoying books across genres and for reasons as varied as the titles out there.  It's about learning, living through literature and expanding one's horizons.  It's about the myriad reasons we pick up a book in the first place.  It's about head nodding and halleluiahs - anything that signifies you've been moved. 

Literature is something more and something different than it was even a couple decades ago.  We live in the information age and books, those physical paper and ink things, are still a huge part of that.  So let's take a look at this world of musty pages and see what we find.