With all the writing I’ve been doing in library school, blogging in depth has fallen by the wayside a bit, but I have been keeping up my “Books Read” list.  I read 54 books and graphic novels in 2009.  Eighteen of those were related to my young adult literature class in some way.  It’s amazing how much you can read when you’ve got a deadline. 

I don’t believe I set a definite goal for 2009, but 36 books was probably about right, and it’s what we’re left with if we take away the books I read for class.  I read 35 in 2007 and 34 in 2008, so 54 is quite a jump.  I’ll be taking a children’s literature class in the summer or fall, so that will push the numbers up a good bit I expect, but I’d like to set a goal for reading entirely out of class.  I feel like I should come up with an elaborate formula but I think we’ll just aim for 40.  Since I do count graphic novels, and trade paperbacks of comic series, it’s not hard to push the number up quickly.  I think 40 is a good number because it’s a bit of a stretch but it’s not at all out of reach.

So here I record it for all of you to see: I will finish 40 books or graphic novels (including TPBs) in 2010.

I say “finish” instead of read because I started reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 2009 but I’ve not finished it yet.

My favorite of the 2009 list by far is Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon, Dean, and Nathan Hale.  It’s a graphic novel with a Western twist on the traditional Rapunzel tale.  I’d strongly recommend it to fans of the fractured fairy tale genre and people looking for cool girl main characters.

What was your one favorite thing you read in 2009?

I have recently finished my first semester of library school.  Some of my assignments demonstrate the work I can do in the field.  I have compiled these on the Library Services page.  Please take a look!

I’m about to bare my soul here, so if you decide to criticize, please do so gently.

I first read Twilight in December of 2007, when it was just on the upswing, but before it became a proper phenomenon.  I was 26, in Florida for Christmas to visit family, away from my then-boyfriend now-husband (who was my boyfriend of 9 years at the time), and for the past several years Christmas-time had been when I was at my most emotionally vulnerable.  My husband would disappear to visit his family, where the internet is slow (meaning infrequent emails from him) and he would stay up until all hours playing video games with his brother, having what sounded like a right magical time to me, while I was with my family, whom I love very much and can stand individually for long periods of time but all together, three days is about my max.  I was in Florida which now counts as far from home, I had a sinus infection (which was actually an infected wisdom tooth but I didn’t find that out until January), my sister had just gotten engaged (to her then-fiance now-husband, whom she had been dating for only a little over two years before they got engaged, which seemed like not a very long time to me) in August, so this was the first time all of our family was seeing her since then, and I was feeling supremely lonely and overlooked.

I picked Twilight up at Target just before we left for Florida.  I started reading it on the way down.  (I think I flew but I’m not 100% on that.  All of my trips to Florida kind of turn into a swirly mess in my head, Christmases combined with summers, a few Easters thrown in, because the weather is about the same most of the year.)  I was sucked in pretty much right away.  Bella Swan and I were practically twins.  She had dark hair.  I have dark hair.  She was clumsy.  I was clumsy.  She had moved in with her dad and started attending a high school in a very small town.  I had moved away from my family and boyfriend and taught at a high school in a very small town.  She had a boyfriend who was a vampire.  I had a boyfriend who wanted to be a vampire.

I can’t remember how I felt about the sparkling at the time.  I want to say I thought it was stupid but it’s entirely possible I thought it sounded very pretty.  (I was supremely disappointed with the execution of that in the film, by the way.)

I ate it up.  I’m pretty sure I sang its praises to my husband.  I think I was all, “There’s this book, and the vampire says such pretty things, and it makes me think of you…"  (Let’s not leave aside the fact that Bella had never had a boyfriend before Edward.  Because the fact that she was having her first real relationship at 17 also parallels my life.  And probably the lives of many more people than would actually admit it.)

I finished the book while I was still in Florida, I think.  It was a vacation read.  I came back to the real world (i. e., not Christmas in Florida) and forgot about Twilight, mostly.  Then it started really becoming a thing and my students started talking about it.  I had two that were very critical of it, and the more I listened to them, the more I realized that all of their criticisms were spot on.  I started to feel ashamed for having enjoyed it so thoroughly.

I recently re-read Twilight for my Young Adult Literature class.  This time I went in looking to examine exactly why I’d had so much fun with it the first time.  For a while, I couldn’t figure it out.  The prose didn’t impress me.  I’m thoroughly tired of teenagers in books taking care of their incompetent divorced/widowed parents.  The last time I found that charming was when I was watching Blossom.  Edward’s behavior was mostly irritating.

But then I got to the sex-scenes-that-are-not.  If you’ve read it, you know what I mean.  The ones where lots of pretty words are said, but no touching happens.  And I realized  that those scenes were the ones that really got me the first time through, and that they have exactly the same power, even now.  Sad.  Embarrassing.  I realized during this reading of it, though, that Edward is not only creepy, but also extremely patronizing.  And that if I had a boyfriend who treated me the way he treats Bella (i. e., like a child) I would dump him posthaste.  I think even if he were really pretty and made me feel very special.  Because there are few things that bother me more than being patronized.

All of my problems with Twilight in terms of plausibility can be summed up by saying it reads like a fanfic - a fanfic I wrote in the Buffy universe, and one lots of other people have written, too.  The Cullens accept Bella so readily, which I thought was ridiculous.  (In fact, I think Rosalie is the most reasonable of them.)  Vampires should not go to high school; I don’t care if it means they can stay in one place longer that way.  As they’re undead, I’m pretty sure truancy officers aren’t going to come after them.  Why anyone would go to high school more than once I can’t imagine.  (And I actually had a pretty good time in high school.)  And then, there’s some parts of vampire lore that are really sacred to me which Stephanie Meyer completely threw out the window, and others she fails to mention entirely.

Recently, I also started to object to the fact that Edward is just creepy, and it frightens me that this is the ideal man in the minds of many girls and women.  But yesterday I had to start re-examining this objection, because my perfect man imprint in fiction is The Phantom of the Opera, and he’s really way creepier than Edward.  He kills people a lot, he sings at Christine from behind a mirror - which means he’s probably been watching her dress and undress, he kidnaps her, he sends threatening notes to all sorts of people.  So.  What makes the Phantom different than Edward?  Well, he’s smarter.  Edward didn’t design an elaborate system of traps and such under an opera house.  Also he’s not actually pretty.  Which I think really is part of his appeal.  Edward feels like he’s a monster because he kind of wants to eat people; Erik, however, looks like a monster but, in the strictest and least psychological of terms, is not one.  Why am I not scared that people will actually hope deformed men will start watching them in mirrors and stealing them away in the same way I’m afraid women will think the ideal boyfriend is a patronizing stalker who looks like he’s going to throw up every time he talks to you?  I think the distance in time is what does it for me.  Erik doesn’t look seventeen.  He doesn’t go to high school.  He doesn’t feel like a person you might really run into who’s just, you know, a vampire, but otherwise “normal.”

So I’ve kind of figured out why I’m okay with the Phantom and not Edward, although I still feel like I’m not really justified in criticizing other people for loving Edward anymore.  (I’ve never been on Team Edward or Team Jacob, but I move closer to being on Team Jacob every day.)  I kept pursuing this line of thought, examining what I think is or is not okay to idealize in a relationship, and I came to the best in vampire/teen girl loves: Buffy and Angel.  I am one of these  Buffy/Angel OTPers.  I mean, I hated Riley simply because he was Not Angel.  And don’t get me started on Spuffy.  (It always ends bad when I talk about it.  Let me say that one of my other prime OTPs is Spike and Dru.  So anytime they’re separated I’m unhappy.)

I was like, “Oh, but Angel’s different.  He didn’t stalk - “  Oops.  Edward sat inside Bella’s bedroom at night for two months.  Angel watched Buffy hang out at school for a year.  Angel followed her from LA to Sunnydale.  “Oh, well, Angel’s different, because he -"  And I just have very little, except that he’s not really patronizing.  But, would you be, if your girlfriend had superpowers?  Now, the fact that it’s Buffy’s job to kill vampires lends a lot more interest to the story, I think, than the fact that Edward kinda wants to have Bella for lunch.  Sacred duty is more interesting than being a snack.  Buffy as a story has many things to recommend it over Twilight, I think; complexity, mainly.  (And I’m pretending here that nothing after Seasons One through Three exists, because it’s really the Buffy/Angel relationship that is of interest here.)  Also Joyce is an adult who can cook her own food and do her own laundry, so that’s nice, and Angel points out how ridiculous it is for Darla to be pretending to be a school girl.  So those issues of mine with Twilight are not a problem on Buffy.

But in the end, I’m pretty much a hypocrite.  I do wish I’d gone on and read New Moon and Eclipse before the phenomenon really started.  (Stupid not being in paperback at the time.)  Because now, I will feel weird reading them.  But the truth is, I’ll probably have fun reading them (not so sure about Breaking Dawn but I couldn’t have read it pre-phenomenon anyway since it wasn’t out until mid-phenomenon). 

No matter how much fun they are, though, you’ll never find me being a Twilight tourist.  I’m not about to journey up to Forks or Port Orange to try and recreate scenes from the book or the movie.  Also, I don’t care how much you like the name Renesmee, it sounds silly.

There.  Now this is the personal response to reading journal I always meant for it to be.

It’s time for interviews again!  I’m not participating due to having lots of school work, but here are yesterday’s interviews.  Many thanks to slayground for the code.

Jim Ottaviani at Chasing Ray Courtney Sheinmel at Bildungsroman Derek Landy at Finding Wonderland Mary E. Pearson at Miss Erin Megan Whalen Turner at HipWriterMama Frances Hardinge at Fuse #8

(cross-posted from my personal LiveJournal - originally posted there at 12:39 am)

I’m already past my quota for the DAY.

What, you don’t write 1700 words in 40 minutes?

I’ll give you a hint:

Make no attempt to disguise your character as not yourself, ramble on at length about the history of comic book characters (summarizing other people’s work really ups your word count!), pour out everything you know about the supernatural, and talk at length about all three of the mean things you and your sister did to each other as little kids.

Current Chapter Title: “Chapter The First: In Which Lauren Grace Vanderbilt Morlock Discovers That She Is, In Fact,Not the Most Important Person in the Entire Universe (Much to Her Dismay)”

Quotes of the Day: “If you would like, we can have a lengthy conversation about how superheroes are our modern mythology, and how it is actually a metaphor when these people gain their powers, for our changing bodies in puberty and our changing roles in life in adolescence and coming to understand our own power of being adult and working that out psychobabble blah blah blahcakes.”

“I get really bad headaches. I keep trying to walk through walls in hopes it will make them better. I usually just end up walking into walls instead, which is not as effective for curing a headache, actually.”

“…I was fairly certain I was destined to save the world at least once, perhaps several times, perhaps over and over again and maybe then someone would go back and actually retcon my life and it would all be different and I would have a new origin story and you do not know, okay?”

“I may be a Marvel girl, but Batman is really cool.”

“So my sister. I love her very much. I think people are supposed to love their sisters, and I love her. I maybe do not really understand her, but we fight much less than many other siblings, so, yeah. We are on pretty good terms, pretty much all of the time. I mean, I am fairly certain she has not stolen any money from my jewelry box for weeks, and I am even more certain that it has been a couple of months since the last time I handed her an empty soda can and said, ‘Here, you can have the rest.’ (Never mind that I fed her dog biscuits when she was two, okay? She was hungry.)”

“I am not known for my ability to shut the hell up.”

“She likes to help people. Which is a really good trait if you are going to have superpowers, I suppose.”

Consider yourself warned.  This reading journal is about to become a writing journal!

Here’s my MAGNA CARTA I (see No Plot?  No Problem! for details) - a list of things I really like in books.

MAGNA CARTA I Magical girls Smart girls Sisters Love that doesn’t get in the way of adventure Love that isn’t too angsty Love that is fun Pretty hair Horses Smart men who have principles Misunderstood people (mostly because they’re too smart) A few close friends Fantastical elements Cleverly hidden exposition Intricate interweaving of mythology Imagery Talking cats Puzzles Girls who are strong but not physically tough

What about you?  What elements do you really like in your stories?

I didn’t get to go to KidLitCon but I’m still learning a lot about it because I’ve been reading all the posts linked from MotherReader’s Round-up.

As you might surmise from my last post, I’ve been reading on average 4 - 6 novels a week for the past few weeks on top of my other assigned readings (articles and such).  One of the things that keeps coming up in the KidLitCon posts is the question of why we blog.  I’ve looked at that question for lectitans several times and it always comes back to the same answer:

I want to share my responses to books.

Sadly, when I read at the rate and with the urgency I’ve been reading, I don’t have time to become too emotionally involved in the books.  So there’s not a lot of response to share.  If things ever calm down a little, I hope to share with you the difference in my experience of reading Twilight the first time and the second time.  I’d also love to talk with you about how reading The Book Thief and What I Saw and How I Lied has inspired me to research my roots - i. e., the Austrian Jews who came here before World War I (thank goodness they did), and also inspired me to confront my intense visceral response to any visual representation of the Holocaust (esp. symbolic memorials) rather than just looking away.

But those deserve actual, real posts, and I just don’t have time for that right now.

So…  I’ll see you with my booklists and for quick little posts here and there, but probably you won’t get anything substantive until December.

I’ll leave you with a link to my first ever recommendation list, which is an assignment for my YA Lit class.  (I haven’t read everything on it, I’m sad to say.)

When Little Willow asked me if I wanted to participate in Thomas Randall’s blog tour, I jumped on it, mainly because I trust her. But also because she sent me an excerpt from the book to read, and it was excellent. Since my favorite thing about it was the atmosphere of the setting, I asked Thomas to write about his research on Japan. Here’s what he had to say!

Confession time: I’ve never been to Japan.  The absolute best thing about the early feedback on THE WAKING: DREAMS OF THE DEAD is that I seem to have convinced people otherwise.  But I’m not going to lie to you, my friends. The Miyazu City that exists in the pages of this trilogy exists only in my mind.  Sure, a great many things that you’ll encounter in the book are real–landmarks and shrines and even street names–but this isn’t the real Miyazu City.

Though that shouldn’t come as a surprise.  Most writers invent versions of the cities in which they set their stories, even cities they know well.  You take what is useful, discard what you don’t need, and do your best to get the sense of the place…its atmosphere.  When it’s a place you’ve never been, a place you’re unlikely to be able to afford to visit on your own dime, what makes the presentation of a setting feel realistic are the details you choose to include.  And details, of course, require research.

If you live in Miyazu City, you’ll certainly know that the version of the place that exists in THE WAKING is fiction.  But if you live there….sssshhh, don’t spoil it for everyone else.

When I set out to write THE WAKING trilogy, I knew the basic story. American teenager Kara Harper and her professor dad are still mourning the death of Kara’s mother two years after their loss.  Her dad has been teaching Japanese language at an American school, and Kara has grown up with the dream of someday visiting the country.  Her father has not only taught her the language, but instilled in her a fascination with the nation and its culture.  In the aftermath of her mother’s death, Kara and her father begin their life anew in a Japanese community where few gaijins visit.  She is the only non-Japanese student at her new school, and her father the only non-Japanese teacher.

Sometimes research feels like a chore, but not on these books.  I jumped right in with both feet.  My first job was, of course, to figure out where it would all take place.  I thought of inventing a city (as Kara’s school, Monju-no-Chie, is invented), but as I surfed page after page online, printing up dozens (at first) of pages about schools in Japan, I ran across an article about the three most beautiful places in the country.  One of them, Ama-no-Hashidate, immediately caught my interest.  A long spit of land that juts out into Miyazu Bay, its white sand beaches are striped up the middle with a dense wood of black pines.  From certain vantage points–scenic overlooks–visitors turn their backs to the bay, bend over, and view Ama-no-Hashidate through their legs.  Upside down, against the blue water, it is said to look like a bridge across the heavens.

It seemed a peaceful place, and I liked the idea of the beauty and tranquility there.  The shore of the bay, in view of Ama-no-Hashidate, seemed the perfect place to set the story of this American girl trying to live in a new country, and adapt to a new culture.  And the perfect place for evil spirits and curses, among other things.

The research only began there, of course.  What followed was a crash course on Japanese education, school uniforms, fads and hobbies, and behaviors in a culture so different from my own.  I had always known that traditions would be different in Japan, but so many things surprised me.  Japanese students have a period of time at the end of each school day (and before mandatory club meetings) when they clean their schools.  Every day.  When they enter the school, they remove their shoes and place them in small cubbies, donning slippers that are worn at all times while in the building.  I loved learning about what Japanese parents put in the bento boxes their kids take to school for lunch and the details of various festivals, such as Toro Nagashi, during which lanterns are set afloat in the bay, each representing a loved one who has died the year before.  I wanted to know what they might eat for snacks, what their traditions are when going to the beach, how  boys and girls behave together, how they celebrate their holidays–and I wish I didn’t know what they put on their pizza.

Seriously.  I hope one day to visit Japan, but I will not be eating pizza there.

I enjoyed every moment of discovering life in Japan with Kara Harper, and I hope you’ll enjoy it, too.  It’s the perfect thing to lull you into a false sense of security before the really creepy stuff starts.  After all, THE WAKING: DREAMS OF THE DEAD, begins with murder.  You’ll understand, I hope, that I didn’t do any first hand research on that.

THE WAKING: DREAMS OF THE DEAD by Thomas Randall.  In stores September 29th, 2009.

Follow The Waking blog tour to learn more about Dreams of the Dead, the first book in this thrilling YA series, and its author, Thomas Randall.

Monday, September 28th: An interview with Little Willow at Bildungsroman Tuesday, September 29th: Author Q&A with Courtney Summers Wednesday, September 30th: A guest blog about writing from the female POV at readergirlz Thursday, October 1st: A guest blog about researching Japanese culture at lectitans Friday, October 2nd: Q&A at Sarah’s Random Musings Friday, October 2nd: An interview at Steph Su Reads Monday, October 5th: A guest blog about writing mysteries at Books By Their Cover Tuesday, October 6th: Q&A with Kim Baccellia Tuesday, October 6th: An interview with BookChic Wednesday, October 7th: An interview at Presenting Lenore Thursday, October 8th: Special post for Michelle at GalleySmith Friday, October 9th: Last stop with Kelsey at Just Blinded Book Reviews

The September Carnival of Children’s Literature is online now. Please go take a look!

Follow The Waking blog tour to learn more about Dreams of the Dead, the first book in this thrilling YA series, and its author, Thomas Randall.

Monday, September 28th: An interview with Little Willow at Bildungsroman Tuesday, September 29th: Q&A with Courtney Summers Wednesday, September 30th: A guest blog about writing from the female POV at readergirlz Thursday, October 1st: A guest blog about researching Japanese culture at lectitans Friday, October 2nd: Q&A at Sarah’s Random Musings Friday, October 2nd: An interview at Steph Su Reads Monday, October 5th: A guest blog about writing mysteries at Books By Their Cover Tuesday, October 6th: Q&A with Kim Baccellia Tuesday, October 6th: An interview with BookChic Wednesday, October 7th: An interview at Presenting Lenore Thursday, October 8th: Special post for Michelle at GalleySmith Friday, October 9th: Last stop with Kelsey at Just Blinded Book Reviews