Growing up at last

For many years as a older child, I refused to go read in the "Young Adult" section in the library. I preferred, even at 14, to read books in the children's area. It's not that I had poor reading skills. It's just that the themes in the Young Adult books didn't appeal to me. They seemed to be all about either girls who were so vacuous that they could have been black holes, or about teens making out. Neither type of book interested me. By the time I was 18, though, not only was I feeling uncomfortable in the children's section (you get a lot of weird looks from the librarians) but I was finding that the books were far to short. I'd just start to get interested, and the story would end!

As a college student, I continued to visit the children's section of my campus library. For one thing, the campus library used the library of congress model instead of dewey decimal. All the adult fiction was mixed straight in with the non-fiction. That's hardly a good way to find a good read! For another, the children's books were all older. The library had a very tiny budget for their children's section, so all the books tended to be from the 50s to the late 70s. They were books I had never read before, since my public library expunged their older books. I loved exploring there, especially the smell of the old books!

Harry Potter changed all that. My mother lent me a copy of the first book, which I read in one afternoon on the concrete stoop in the daycare playroom. It was hardly a comfortable place to read, but I was too enthralled with the book to get up and move to the couch 4 feet away. I knew the next 2 books were already out, so when I got back to the university, I went to the library to find them. Now, I mentioned that my university hadn't had any money for books since the 1970s. They only got 6 new children's books a year! Harry Potter was not something they carried. A trip to the bookstore with my first paycheck of the year was clearly in order!

At SLO's B&N, I could not find the first 3 HP books. I searched all through the kids section and couldn't find them! Finally I asked... turns out HP were "young adult" books. What, me? Reading a teen book? Couldn't be. I read kids books! But then I realized something. B&N carried all kinds of Young Adult books. They even had a couple shelves labeled "Fantasy" books in the YA section! Finally, I could read the same themes I read as a kid in the children's section, but longer! Over time, I discovered some of my favorite authors in the teen section: Tamora Pierce, Diana Wynne Jones, Diane Duane, Charles DeLint, Dia Calhoun and Pamela Dean.

Justin also introduced me to Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Robert Asprin, from the adult book fantasy section, but I found nothing else in that section enjoyable. Over 75% of the books in that section had covers with women in skimpy clothing holding swords. Before you say "Don't judge a book by the cover!" think about it. These books are about a male main characater who has a female partner that he rescues... constantly. I HATE these kind of books. They are the teenage boys' version of the vacuous girl books! Even when the woman is the main character, most of the time, she ends up falling into a man's arms and ignoring her quest! Once again, the themes just didn't appeal to me. Aside from Terry Pratchett and Robert Asprin, I stuck to the YA section.

After I graduated college, I found that I began to get looks from the bookstore employees and teenage girls when I went in the YA section. They were the same looks that I used to get from the childrens' librarians. Guys! Don't worry! I'm just reading!! I promise, I won't hurt anything! Mind you, I give the same look to old men who are in the YA section. But they aren't there for the books, right? So for a few years now, I've felt slightly uncomfortable in the YA section. It doesn't help that half the people I know make rude remarks when I say I like to read those books (you know who you are!). I'm not self confident enough to not worry about the remarks and the looks. I am confident enough to keep doing what I want despite these negative ninnies.

I truly see no problem with reading kids' books until age 18, anyway. Isn't that what Young Adult means? a YOUNG ADULT! How is 15 or 16 a young adult?! I realize that there needs to be a place for teens in the library/bookstore. Someone has to read all those Babysitter club books, after all! But I see no problem with skipping that section altogether. Not everyone wants to read about how the popular girl made fun of the outcast and kissed the jocks. I also see no problem with a 25 year old in the YA section. That's still a YOUNG ADULT!

Having said that, I realized a few months back that I am starting to tire of the YA section. I'm once again finding that I've read (and own) almost all the books that catch my interest in that section. Also, they're starting to be too short again. I've spent slightly more time in the Adult Science fiction/fantasy section lately, but I'm still running into the same problems. Can't anyone write a good feminist themed book, without talking animals and a love story (see Daughter of the Empire)? Hmm... I wonder what would happen if the talking animals fell in love with the vacuous teen girl!

So imagine my surprise last Saturday when I happened upon Charles DeLint's books while wandering through the adult fantasy section! Apparently, all those books I listed on my Amazon wish list and couldn't find in the bookstore? They have been there the whole time! I was just looking in the wrong place!! I'm pleased to actually find something worth reading in that section. Maybe this is the start of a whole new era!