Not Ideal

I'm reading The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare right now. It was on sale for five bucks in the iBookstore about a month ago and trailers for the movie had piqued my interest, so I bought it. This post isn't about the book (which I'm conflicted about), though.

I only mention the book to explain why it is that I've finally realized that I don't like the experience of reading on e-readers. That's not to say that I'm not a fan of e-readers; I think it's great that I can carry around the complete works of Jane Austen on my iPhone (thank you, free Project Gutenberg e-books). It's just that e-readers are not ideal for reading a book for the first time.

I keep finding myself wanting to go back and look for things in the book (usually because a character will say something about x and I don't remember that character knowing about x), but I don't. Rifling through the pages of a physical book to remind myself of something is second nature to me, but going back through the pages of a digital book feels like too much work. Maybe if I read more books on my iPad I would become comfortable doing that, but I doubt it. Like I said, it's not ideal.

On a completely separate topic: Jane Austen is officially going to appear on the £10 note. However, the Austen-adorned currency will not go into circulation until 2017. That gives me plenty of time to save for my trip to the UK.

Whoops

Goodness, Wednesday came and went without my noticing. And I'm far too tired to write anything of any substance tonight. Luckily, I stockpiled links to share for just these situations.

• First, we have Mashable's list of 15 YA books every adult should read. I've only read one of them (The Book Thief), so my TBR list has grown again.
• Apparently shell-shocked WWI soldiers were told to read Jane Austen. Is it strange that that makes perfect sense to me?
• Speaking of Austen, I'm going to bookmark this page in the British Library's online store.

I think this is a good place to stop. I can't run through my whole stockpile at once, can I?

Thoughts

Perhaps I should have named this post "Reviews," but that sounds too pompous or something. Regardless, I have thoughts to share on a couple of things.

First, there's Diana Peterfreund's For Darkness Shows the Stars. I wanted to read this book since a friend sent me the link to The Atlantic Wire's 2012 YA Book Awards, in which it is described as "a clever dystopian retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion." As I said to the friend who sent me the link, there are so many magic words in that one little sentence fragment. I was so wrapped up in the story that I read it in two days and I found myself worrying over whether or not Elliot and Kai would get together, which is not something I worry about when re-reading Persuasion. It reminded me of a moment in You've Got Mail where Meg Ryan's character says that she always worries that Lizzie and Darcy won't get together when she re-reads Pride and Prejudice, which never made sense to me before. When I started reading the book I was annoyed that several character names were a little too on-the-nose (Elliot North, Captain Malakai Wentforth, and Elliot's neighbors the Groves), but then I realized that that is a dumb thing to be annoyed by. Plus, I always enjoyed that the Mr. Elton character in Clueless is named Elton, so why be annoyed by these names?

The apocalypse of this post-apocalyptic world was interesting (though not explained as fully as I would've liked), the story was true to the original, and Peterfreund even managed to have Kai write his own version of Captain Wentworth's letter. Apparently there's a companion novel that discusses the apocalypse more fully, too, so I'll have to check that out. (Isn't that always the way? You knock one book off your TBR list and immediately replace it with another.)

Second, I finally saw The Host. I'd preordered it from Amazon and received it on the release date. I liked it and I'm glad I bought it, but I didn't love it. Since when is Melanie Southern? Did they just do that since Southern accents are easiest for non-Americans to affect? I actually have a bunch of complaints about changes they made in the movie, but I really need to stop focusing on them. They hit the important parts of the story and Ian was wonderful (even if he didn't look like Ian). I'll probably like the movie more the next time I watch it. At the very least, it inspired me to re-read the book again, which is awesome.

Huh, I just realized that For Darkness Shows the Stars and The Host were the two things I bought myself with the Amazon gift card I got for my birthday. I'd forgotten these things had that connection when I started this post.

Young Adult Fiction

My YA literature course ended six months ago, but I'm still reading a lot of YA fiction. Good stories are good stories and getting hung-up on labels is stupid. However, I realize that lots of people feel that YA books are somehow less because they are marketed to young adults (as discussed in that BBC News clip I linked to last week). If you have yet to embrace the joys of YA fiction, I highly recommend you read Chuck Wendig's blog post: 25 Things You Should Know About Young Adult Fiction (NSFW).

I'd never heard of Wendig before a link to that post showed up on my Twitter feed (don't remember who tweeted it, though), but I've enjoyed the little bit of his blog I've read so far (and not just because the post before the YA one argued for a female Doctor, which would be awesome). I realize that the post is aimed at authors, but he talks about the importance of reading YA fiction if one wishes to write for that audience.

A Couple Of Links

Wednesday snuck up on me this week. Thankfully the Internet provided me with a couple of interesting articles from BBC News yesterday.

First, Jane Austen may appear on British money. This is exciting to me because of my great love for Austen. I would seriously consider traveling to England to get my hands on Jane Austen money (and also because I've always wanted to go to England).

Second, a discussion of whether adults should read children's books. My answer to that question is a resounding yes (and not just because I enjoy re-reading the Betsy-Tacy books every once in a while). A good story is a good story and, really, people should feel free to read whatever they want to read.

Decisions, Decisions

I'm facing a conundrum. I can't decide what to read next.

It's the first time I've had this problem all year but it's not for a lack of options. I still have several Christmas presents (and at least one birthday present from last year) in my TBR [to be read] pile. But none of them feel like the right book to read next. There are at least two reasons for that.

The first reason is that I finished John Green's Looking for Alaska last night. It's phenomenal, but it's kind of heavy. I want to read something a little lighter next.

The second reason is pretty much the same as the first one now that I think about it: summer (and my birthday) is fast approaching and I want to read something summery (read: light) to honor my favorite season.

The stuff at the top of my TBR pile doesn't feel particularly summery. I do have a Jennifer Weiner novel, but it's not the Jennifer Weiner book I most want to read. (I will buy the Jennifer Weiner book I most want to read, The Next Best Thing, if I get an Amazon gift card for my birthday. And the odds of that are pretty good.)

If I don't want to read any unread books, then I'm left with books I've read. But that has its own problems. For starters, how do I narrow it down? Although I am leaning towards re-reading a YA series. But, again, which one? I know I just read Veronica Roth's Divergent books and Kiera Cass' Selection books a month ago, but they're both begging to be read again. I should really hold off on the Divergent books until October, though, because that's when Allegiant is coming out. The Selection books are kind of perfect summer books, but I just read them a month ago. I'd all but decided to re-read Scott Westerfeld's Uglies books since it's been six months since I read them, but then a voice in my head just whispered, "Harry Potter." And I definitely have a history of reading Harry Potter books in the summer, but seven books is kind of a big commitment - I would like to get back to my TBR pile at some point this summer.

There is, of course, a third option that I'm not really considering: I could go to the library. I know the library is a veritable treasure trove of books I've never read. But my TBR list is really long and I don't currently feel up to wading through it to find books to check out.

I think I've just come up with the perfect book, actually: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I haven't read it since I was in college and I loved it. I saw a reference to it on the Internet recently and thought that I should re-read it, but then I forgot (of course). But I just saw it on my bookshelf and it all came back. Yes, I believe I will read The Mists of Avalon.

I'm A Book Addict

I'd never really thought of it in those terms before, but I fit pretty much all of BuzzFeed's 25 signs you're addicted to books. And if I read it on the Internet it must be true, right? Joking aside, I love that list. It is very, very me.

I love that the first item on the list uses a GIF from Matilda to illustrate its point. I've never seen the movie, but I read the book in elementary school and I still have it. I haven't read it in years, but I think it's time to give it a re-read. I really should read it before I see Matilda on Broadway in December.

The other items on the list that really hit close to home were those that talked about books having a great impact on one's emotions and books causing the reader to make bad decisions with respect to eating and sleeping. The sleeping thing is a real issue for me right now. I keep choosing reading over sleeping even though I know it will screw up my sleep patterns; the books are just so good that I don't care. (And any book that I choose over sleep must be good because I love sleep.)

I wish I knew where the "Baby Got Back"-inspired mug came from. I must have it. If you know where I can purchase it, please let me know.