On Summer Reading Lists

INTRODUCTION

I have always enjoyed reading, and I have always done it out of enjoyment. Most teachers and parents have to force their children to read, but the issue has never been a problem in my household. I go to Half-Price Books every week and spend almost my whole 25 dollar allowance on it. I even write books, and I plan to have a career as a writer one day. So reading isn't something I object to. What I do object to, though, are Summer Reading lists.

For years, long before I was even thought of, children and teens have had to read something for summer as an effort to get children to read. Of course, it hasn't helped much for the simple reason of Wikipedia and Google. Anyhow, each year, I and everyone in my school has always been given the annual Summer Reading List. At my old school-before I moved to Rockwall-we had three options each year. I distinctly remember two options I chose in fifth and sixth grade: Hush by Jacqueline Woodson and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I vaguely remember Hush, and I had already read the entire Percy Jackson series long before I was given the assignment to read it over the summer. But, what I found degrading about Summer Reading Lists is the lack of choice or option. Even here at my new school in Rockwall, the choices are limited and uninteresting. There are maybe four choices which I will deem interesting: Ripper, Cinder, Shadow and Bone, and Legend. The others are far from interesting, and most of them are coming of age stories that are boring and too homey in my opinion.

I was unable to get Cinder because it actually sounded interesting, and I had been wanting to read it for a while--what boy doesn't want to read about cyborgs?-and Ripper I also wanted to read, but I am wary now because I am so intent on reading Cinder. Also, for all of you about to comment on how I can just check them out from a library, well I hate libraries. I hate them with a passion. I have no problems with used books, but I have never been well accustomed to libraries, I p to buy the book if I want to keep in my collection, also I have so many books that I have yet to get to, but I will soon-if I were to check them out from a library, I would be limited to when I could get it since someone might have checked it out. Also, these books we have to annotate, and you can't write in library books or you get fined, as you know.

Anyhow, that's one of the big things about Reading Lists. They give you so little options, and such obscure options, that you will either never find the book, or never get the book. Also there is a lack of relative novels on Reading Lists. To Kill a Mockingbird has been a song sung to many times for the past few generations, and I'm getting sick of hearing about it. I want to read the classics, I do, but some classics I have little interest in and when I learned that I would have to read TKAM in 9th Grade, I wept on my keyboard. For once, I might actually be unenthusiastic about reading a book, and I have never been unenthusiastic about going to another place and another time. But, it's just the overuse of classics that are no longer relevant that makes me weep.

This brings me to my current predicament. I always thought that Summer Reading would be easy for me because I read all the time, and I could blow through a book nice and fast if I want to get to more interesting ones. But, the fact that I have to choose from a list angers me. Too many books and too little time. If I could choose my own books for Summer, then I might get an A++(literally!). Not to say I don't get A's every year when I turn it in.

Currently I am reading some books that are bigger than some of my classmates have ever since, some have even asked me am I reading the Bible because the books were so enormous. And a lot of these Biblical sized books are way better than these boring ol' books on the short, un-optional reading lists. In my last post, I told you all I was taking on the epic novel Dhalgren which is probably going to be the greatest reading challenge I ever face. How come I can't annotate and read that for summer? Hmm? I will admit, it's not a book you should read in school—with F*ck, n*pple, and sexy descriptions within the first few pages—it's still a literary landmark, a masterpiece I've been told. I think that's a good enough reason to read it! Schools censor too much, and so do parents. Thankfully my parents don't care what I read, and I think because of this, it has made ma better person. I know what I want to read, and what I shouldn't read. Such as erotica. I hate erotica and I will never read it. Even Stephen King's very descriptive books--namely 11/22/63--that have sex in them aren't as bad as erotic fiction, in fact he keeps his scenes very short and to the point. There are a lot of parents who aren't like me, but there are still a lot who are.

So, to counter this, I have come up with this:

THE LIBERATED SUMMER READING LIST PROGRAM
GUIDELINES

• The book must be at least 120 pages unless it is one of the following classics:
  Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, Unabridged Dover Thrift Edition 160p.
  Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Unabridged Dover Thrift Edition, 91p.
  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Lewis Stevenson, Dover Thrift Edition 64p.
  *Those are three I can think of, but you get the point. 
• Books must be chapter books or novellas (i.e. Anthem by Ayn Rand, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, and At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft) and it must contain the original text without changes.
  *The reason for this is because of the recent change in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by changing the 'n' word to robots and other nonsense like such.
• Books containing explicit materials (i.e. sex, swearing, and other such things) are allowed, but limited only to the parents’ judgment of the book. 
• All fiction except Erotica for anyone not in High School is not accepted. 
• If students choose to read a book containing explicit material, and the parents chooses not to allow them to read this, parents must write their own review of the book for the teacher's judgment to possibly ban the book from the Liberated Reading List. 
• Picture books (i.e. Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries) are not accepted for anyone in Secondary School. 
• Secondary School students must follow bullet point #1, Primary School Students are allowed to read anything that is at least 60 pages long with pictures. 
• Audiobooks are not allowed either.
• If students decide to read Poetry books (i.e. Edgar Allen Poe, Ellen Hopkins, Shel Silverstein) they must annotate and break down each poem, or depending on the number of poems within a book, they must at least annotate 15 of the poems in the book. That said, the book must contain at least 15 pieces of poetry unless it is one contentious poem. 
• With the annotation of poetry books, other books must also be annotated. Special cases spoken upon in the next bullet point. 
• If Students decide to read an Epic (i.e. The Stand, A Game of Thrones, Inheritance, Lord of the Rings, any book over 800 pages) they have two options for annotation. 
• Students may buy a Spark notes edition of the book (also covered in another bullet point) find the key points in the book, and annotate those. Teachers will be equipped with Sparknotes editions to determine if any information was copied from the actual Sparknotes, as well as free reign to research Wikipedia and any other sources of cheating. While annotating key points, Students who choose this method will have to write 1 page summaries of each key event, as well as connecting them to the main story arch. 
• If Students do not choose method one, they may annotate at least 250 pages of the book as well as adding 2 extra pages to their synopsis of the book due at the beginning of the school year.  
• Biographies are allowed, but not other forms of Nonfiction books in which there is only informational purposes in the writing of the book. We are strongly encouraging students to read fiction books over the summer and finding meaning in them. 
• Short Story collections are allowed, but students must annotate at least 4 stories in the short story book, and the short stories in the book must be more than 1 page long. 
• If the book has a movie adaptation, we do encourage students to watch the movie as well, and for extra credit, we encourage them to write a report on the comparisons of the two. We are also allowing for scripts to be annotated. 
• Sources of cheating(i.e. Sparknotes, *movies, Wikipedia, etc.) will cause for students to redo the project with an assigned book deemed 'boring' and students will not get credit for their Summer Reading. Teachers will be equipped with articles from across the web, Wikipedia, and they will be armed with Sparknotes copies for corresponding books. 
• E-books are strongly discouraged to enthuse for more physical books, as well as to get students into bookstores to possibly find other books they may enjoy. E-books are also harder to annotate, and no one wants to hand over their iPad!
• Book groups are encouraged, but all students must annotate in their own way and do whatever project they decide on by themselves. 
• We encourage censored books! We encourage students to read books that have been censored or banned if possible! The Liberated Summer Reading List shuns almost no book! 
• In the special case of a student having written a book, other students are allowed to read that book and annotated. The author of such book is not allowed to annotate or write notes on their own book or provide excess information to readers of their book. 
• Manga and comic books are excepted, but by a few limitations:
• If it is a manga, students will have to note if it is a series Manga. If it is a series Manga, students must read 1) If all of the series is out, or a greater number than 20, students must read at least 10 books of manga and write about their story and their art. 2) If is still being released,  students may choose to do more than one series and write 1-2 paragraph reports on each book from the different Manga series'. For comic book readers, we encourage you to read at least 30 and analyze and write about them and their art.
  *Allowing for students to read comic books and manga with certain limitations is probably better than restricting it sense, believe it or not parents who are reading this, some comic books to show very good values, and are just a good a medium as books. 
• Comic book/Manga readers must also read one of three classics as well:
  Frankenstein
  Fahrenheit 451
  The Great Gatsby 
• Students are allowed to read more than one book over the summer, in some cases we encourage them to read entire series' if possible!  
• Though hardcover books are nice, we would like them to stay nice by getting paperback books instead, there are several reasons why you should get a paperback as well.
• Hardcovers are less expendable or durable as Paperbacks.
• Hardcovers are much more expensive than paperbacks(some are even 50 dollars)
• Paperback books come in many more sizes, sizes that take up a lot less space than the one sized hardcovers.
• Paperbacks are easier to annotate as the pages are much more adjustable.
• Hardcovers are often special editions, collectors editions, and limited edition, and they are also only on shelves for a limited time, whereas paperbacks are seemingly forever, and are once again, more expendable.
• Paperback paper is more so made to be written on, over a hardcover book which is more so meant to be read.
• It is easier to handle and carry a paperback book because of their lightweight, their lack of a cover jacket, and once more, their size.
• Students are asked not to share one book, everyone should have their own individual book.

What is the purpose of the Liberated Summer Reading List?

Every summer, students are asked to at least read one book from a limited, and un-optional reading list. Students are asked to read classics, and books that are quite frankly, boring. Though many will tell you how important morals and themes of these books are, I will agree, at the same time, it is time for a change in reading. Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird, and many other ‘classics’ are ancient, and no one relates to them as much as they once did. I wept the first time I learned I would have to read To Kill a Mockingbird after having seen the movie in Journalism class. Half of the kids in the class were utterly bored, and few of us actually paid any attention, and I am not afraid to say I, as a regular reader of books, did not enjoy it. Ever sense then, I have not been looking forward to reading it. I even traded it back in to Half-Price Books after only being able to read the first few pages.
            Summer Reading Lists are degrading and redundant. Many of the book on the list are not interesting, and many students would rather just read the Wikipedia page or watch the movie is there is one. Another problem with current Summer Readily Lists is the limitation to get what you want. Many of the books on these lists are in limited numbers at libraries and bookstores ad this causes for many students to begin their projects or reading late in summer, if at all. Many of these books also do not increase enthusiasm in reading, rather they shrink the want to read.
            For many summers, I have always dreamt of being able to read my Stephen King books, George RR Martin books, or something by the masterful Ayn Rand, but because it was not on the reading list, I had to put my books aside in favor for the list book I would not finish for ages and ages to come, finding myself more and more reluctant to read it each time, and I dreaded the knowing thought of having to read the book. And all through my school years, I fear I will always have to face these dreadful lists created by the state and schools everywhere.
            This is why I would propose the Liberated Summer Reading List, the only summer reading list where books are unlimited as long as they follow the given guidelines. Finally I would be able to do reports and read King, Tolkien, and Delany. I would finally be able to actually enjoy reading for school again. I feel that censoring, banning, and limiting what students are allowed to read kills their want to read. You can sprinkle the four or five enjoyable books on the list—I’ll try not to sound biased about this since opinion is a matter of who you are—that are actually enjoyable such as Cinder, Insigna, Legend or another mainstream book, but even that is not enough. It’s too limited. Sure, I understand that you might be trying to open us up to other authors, but I feel like that is up to the reader to decide whether or not they like an author or want to try an author.
            I write books myself, and I am working on four right now—one is the sequel to a book I published recently, the others are totally new books—and I have a sympathetic side to reading and authors as well as a passionate side. That being said, I believe freedom of the reader is the most important thing for summer reading or reading at all. Too often parents and schools tryand censor books, limit children to ‘oh this is okay’ and ‘oh no, I don’t want my poor baby Danny to be corrupt by the awesome power of the word damn!’
            Those are the kinds of people I hate. So what if a book has a swear word in it, or if the tones are dark. Who whoopdy-doo! That’s life in fiction! J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a beautiful world where good and evil battle it out, and he does it in a strangely dark way, yet it’s understandable and sure a little child might not understand it as well as Harry Potter, but it’s the same message all the same. Too many people concentrate on how the story is told, and what’s in the story, and not the story itself. It’s like how we decide on a book based on its cover. I’m sure that if you stripped the cover of every book out there—or better yet, if you saw a book in its manuscript form, before you get the nice fancy fonts and the gorgeous cover, half the people who read some of the best books today would have never picked them up. I have learned something from researching publishing and publishers for a long time. The only way a book gets published if by its story and how it’s written. If the book is well enough, then it will be published. If a book is bad, it gets rejected for a reason.
            I believe that’s how you should judge what is right for your child, only in such a way that goes beyond just the exterior words, but actually the interior story. Stop being sensitive and start thickening your skin. Stephen King and George RR Martin are thick skinned authors: Martin slaughters characters without remorse; King gives it to you how it is. And they have been deemed masters for it. Why? Because people don’t care what the words on the page are they care about what they words say.
            The Liberated Summer Reading List would add variety, spunk—yeah I just said spunk—and fun to summer and summer reading. It would be the answer to get kids reading again, by letting them choose what they want to read. I wish I could read and analyze Dhalgren for my Summer Reading, because it’s a challenge and I like challenges. I wish everyone could be able to analyze something they enjoy. There are too many books out there that want to be read by reluctant readers and readers alike, but they are past up too many times by either parents of kids who say, ‘Mom, can we get this one?’ and at one glass at the strange and miraculous cover of the kraken swallowing up a whole ship of men, the mother shakes her head, and the kid goes home with some wimpy book about a boy whose afraid to tell his mom he’s gay, or something like that. Not to say that book wouldn't be interesting, but that depends on the writing and a lot of other things.
            The point is, liberate reading, liberate summer reading, and liberate all the books that have been cast into the Crags of Banned Bookdom. That’s what the Liberated Summer Reading List is.

Dhalgren: So it Begins

So, you may have already inferred from the title of this post, but it's going to be about Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren, supposedly one of the more complicated books to read. Which is precisely why I have decided to read it. I have just gotten past the first scene of Chapter 1, and I am now on scene 2(if you don't know what I mean, think about a Stephen King book where he pits the numbers for the scene breaks). I understand it at least 95% so far, but that was the with the aid of me writing notes and breaking things down, even elaborating on certain things. Yes, it is a little confusing, but the average reader could probably consume it with the same kind of aid I am giving myself. What's confusing about Dhalgren is just the poetic sense that is is written in, and the way that Delany describes things almost deliberately confusingly. This one line is strange by itself: "Beyond a leafy arras, reflected moonlight flittered". I had to reread that line a few times to understand it. Also, if you do not know what an arras is, then you really shouldn't be reading this book in the first place. 

Anyhow, Delany just describes things in a less common sense, also in some ways, more descriptive than most writers-and trust me, i am one of those descriptive writers, just you wait until I publish this book I'm writing now...

Delany also makes this book a little confusing to read-or at least the first few pages-because the first few pages are just a really long but interesting poem, believe it or not.And to make things even more intriguing, the first line is the last line. Grammar Nazis beware of this book, for the first word is not capitalized, but after examining the book and reading the last line-as I so often do-I learned that the first line of this book was just the continuation of the last, which brings me to question whether or not this book is just a paradox of itself, bring itself in a circle round and round. Some people have said that this book is a riddle never meant to be solved, and maybe it is. Or maybe it is more simple than any one person could ever imagine. 

We'll just have to see! 

In the next post, I rant about something that has to do with this very topic(kind of)

'Fans of the Hunger Games will love this!'

Okay, look. I am going to be to the point with this blog because I'm watching Smallville right now. Anyhow,  every now and then I flip through the pages of a book still waiting to be read, and always I read through the reviews for the book--because they take up at least 4 pages of the actual book, if not 6 in some, if its a series. I happened to have George RR Martins A Song of Fire and Ice Series here on my desk, all up to be 4(I have yet to buy 5, but plan to). So I picked up A Feast for Crows because it's just there, and I covered this another blog, about how I'm a book sniffer and whathaveyou, but I digress. So I flipped to the reviews page, and constantly--every single page--at least 2 reviews talked about how much George RR Martins work reminded them of T.H. Whites Once and Future King, or J. R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and it's even gotten to the point where they've started talking about Harry Potter.

This has officially become tiring. Martin is a fantastic author, and there is no doubt about that. I once thought that he was terrible, I hated the show because of the hype that surrounds everything in our day and time, but I always think that for anything I have never seen, read, or tried-I hated The Hunger Games once too-but I finally decided to try it out, and you already know my experience with A Game of Thrones, and I have bought almost all the books in the series. But what frustrates me now is how every time his books come out, ever friggin' reviewer out there reference another Fantasy book or series.

The reason it frustrates me is because they're acting like very other series out there is no match for Martin, and they're acting like his books are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Its annoying for the reason because they're belittling every author who came before him. Look, Tolkien had his world which was brighter, and purely Fantasy at its heart. Tolkien had dragons, elves, dwarves, and hobbits--that was his realm, that was his world. Rowling create Harry Potter for children, and that one was solely about wizardry and magic, and had all the charm of any other Fantasy. The same goes for every other writer in any other genre. On nearly every dystopian book to date, ever sense the mega success of the Hunger Games, a dystopian novel cannot be what it is without being compared to Collins' work. Veronica Roth's Divergent is nothing like The Hunger Games, there isn't any real likeness in it actually, not even the dystopian worlds they created are the same. Starters was a book that I didn't even dare to read because they compared it, and I didn't like the writing of the first page. Blood Red Road was good, but it was no Hunger Games. And then there was that endless Battle Royale and TMG war that still wages on today.

Back on the topic of Martin's work, I hate how they keep calling him the American Tolkien. Maybe he is, but the thing is, Tolkien and Martin's world are two totally different entities. Yes, Martin's work is a little bit more grown up than Tolkien's as it's pages are littered with whores, swearing, sex, and blood whereas Tolkien's are filled with histories, mystical lands, and fantasy in one of its purist forms. The only thing that really makes Martin's world 'fantasy' is because of the hints of Magic, Dragons, and the world that is is built in. If it did not have those things, it would be a Medival Fiction book, and a good one at that. Martin shouldn't be compared to Rowling either because she created a world or children, and one that people love. Sure adults read Harry Potter, but they are in every sense children's books. Tolkien's world was born from a children's book that his publisher requested he continue in another volume. Jurgen is a book that I have never read, but Martin has also been compared to James Branch Cabell, plus Jurgen deals wit a time traveler, so it isn't just fantasy anymore.

Martin has created a name for himself, and his name shouldn't be compared with the other great names of fiction such as King, Tolkien, Cabell, Eddison, Rowling, and all the other great writers of our generation. Rather his work should be listed and cherished instead of having to be a battle ax for the big name critics and holly to kill all the others with. It sickens me to know that no one can just appreciate a book any more, rather they have to compare it to another. Every book has its charm, and every book shines in its own way-even my first book The Maze Games, terribly plotted as it may be, it is still mine and I believe it shines in its own way, and someone will come along who likes it as much as I did when I wrote it.

Let us not spoil books by using them to throw at each other like the ancients and kindergartners throw rocks at each other, rather, let us read them, love them, and leave them be. It is like if there is a parallel universe, it does not intersect ours, and that is what a book is-a parallel universe reflecting our own. And because of this, every universe within a book shouldn't intersect with another.

Me, Myself, and I

No, this is not a blog asking my parents to go outside, nor is it just me blatantly stating that I want to do what the title says. No, this is me saying that I want to have an outdoorsy summer this year, the problem is I don't see that happening. I would love to go outdoors, do something that my parents are pretty much begging me to do, rather than sitting indoors all day on the computer, or reduced to tears of boredom--it has happened before. But there are a lot of factors that hurt me going outside, I will list and elaborate on them:

• I have asthma; during the summer its hot, pollinated, and my lungs can't take too much of that, especially on the best days when the sun is out, and the wind is blowing a soft breath through the neighborhood. You don't even know the half of it. 
• I have 0 friends to hang out with. My next door neighbor, who was my friend for 4 months, doesn't want to be my friend anymore, the kid at the end of the street probably doesn't want to hang out, plus we have nothing in common. The guy who lives a block away never wants to come out. The rest of my friends are scattered across the state, one of them all the way in Dallas, while I sit at home in Rockwall; one of them lives far from me, so that's out of the questions. 
• You can't have fun unless you have money, and I only get a $25 allowance which gets me to a few stores, and then back home. Also, can I note that 90% of all the places around my house consist of either food our clothing? So, there's not very much choice for me to do anything other than shop for overpriced food and clothes.
• No one is ever outside. It's true that we have fallen ill to the plague of technology and the Idiot Box. I like a little TV as much as the next guy, but if I'm not lying in bed, it's off. And I'm not a big gamer. I get maybe, 2 kills every time I plan Black Ops or something, annually that is. The computer becomes quite a bore as well, since I mainly cycle through about 5 websites over and over again, mainly Google and YouTube. 
• Writing, though I love the noble art with all my life, becomes a bore itself as well. Writing, as you can imagine, is a very independent sport and when you spend most of you waking hours at home alone, well, it can become more than independent--it becomes depressing. 

So, as you can see, I have my reasons for not really going anywhere. My parents tell me that I need to get used to doing things alone, but then they kind of contradict themselves by saying enjoy your childhood. When I hear that, I think about friends, smiles, pools, and things of that nature, not just video games as I think they imagine. Also, they tell me that I don't need friends, but if you don't have any brothers or sisters, freinds, and you spend nearly 100% of your day alone, yeah I think that you need friends to have fun. So far, my summer has consisted of the things listed above, and sometimes me talking to myself or acting out scenes...alone. Yep, just me, myself, and I. 

The Game of Thrones Theme and the Love of Music

This is just a quick post to say how madly in love I am with the epic 1:42 main theme for Game of Thrones! I mean, it's just so--gah! You have to listen to it, it just sets the mood for everything-writing, reading, dancing emotionally, waking up from a long nap, taking a dump. Here listen to the original, then one on the violin, then one on the piano:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yydcG9woWA- Violin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7L2PVdrb_8- Original
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6a9odk6b_c- Piano #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kBWtd4lujk- Piano #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Zzilrdx5k- Acoustic Guitar

Now, tell me that You didn't just fall in love with that them! Yeah, this makes watching and reading Game of Thrones a whole bunch more fun. It's going to be a immortal theme like the classic Star Wars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjMNNpIksaI

Or the Spiderman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ac4xamCIgY

Or even Superman!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9vrfEoc8_g

Ah, you gotta love music.

The Pain of Bookstores

I'm not sure how many people actually walk into a bookstore these days, or at least a major one-not Wal-Mart, or anything small like that. For those who do--I do 99% of the time, unless I happen to find the pdf file online--have you ever noticed that you're the only one browsing for books? Just yesterday when I went to Barnes and Noble, I found that 80% of the customers were either in Starbucks, the comic book section, or the DVD section of the store. The other 20%, well it should be smaller than that, because I'm speaking a really small 20%, were either checking out cookbooks or some of the bargain books. nearly 0% of all those people were actually browsing the books. Hundreds upon hundreds of books, never before seen by the eyes of those customers. I think I may have looked pretty weird, too. Carrying around my laptop bag, setting it down at every isle I stopped upon and blocking the bottom level books, and checking out books in the adult section. I was also forced to be clustered with several people who didn't give two shits about reading, and were there to play around. There was a small group of about three boys in front of the shop when I came in. A few minutes later, they came bustling in laughing and running, completely ignoring the books.

I think that my parents might have approved of me doing that, since it seems that they are more apposed to me reading believe it or not. In fact, it took less than a week for my parents to pay the 300 dollars for my football gear and stuff, versus the summer it took them to pay for publishing my book. Is it just me, or do my parents care more about my football career than my life-long passion?

Anyhow, the fact that several of the customers who go to bookstores like that flock to the comic books and manga pains me, as an author of course. Knowing that, when my books become bestsellers--if that ever happens--or if they are at least on one of those stands in the front, people are just going to fly past them in favor of the next volume of Bleach or Death Note--not that I have a problem with the two, I actually read them both--is a little discouraging. I mean, I see multiple volumes of my favorite author's standing on the shelves literally collecting dust, and I'm not even kidding. I had to actually brush the dust off of several copies I picked up at the Half-Price Book store up the street from my home. What's even more baffling is the fact of how small the comic book section of Half-Price Books is! It's one bookcase, a very narrow one with the same amout of shelves as the regular books, yet they get probably the most attention out of all the books in that store.

Not to mention the moms who force their children to come to Half-Price books and pick out one--only to find later that there best efforts weren't enough. I mean, I'm one of those few who actually spend time browsing, or sampling, or just staring at the books because there are so many to choose from. I could tell you a billion synopsis', compare them, and elaborate on them from all the back-covers of books I've read, and many people could not.

But, I don't have as much doubt as I used to. Where I came from, in Lancaster, Texas-terrible place by the way-when I went to the book section of any store around there-excluding the comic book store by the movie theater, that ALWAYS had at lest four customers in it at once-I would probably be the only one to check it out. My freinds were also reluctant readers, I even have friends now here in Rockwall who seem to bcome sick from the sight of the books in my room. I dragged my friend to Half-Price Books right before it stormed, and he looked good-awful pale, and he seemed to be sickening with every minute more spent there.

What also seems to tear me apart are the workers who work at the bookstores. What strikes me as strange is that, readers seem to work at places they dislike-movie theaters, restaurants, and other places that they can't wait to get out of-and those who hate to read work at bookstores. The few workers who like to read are freaks with long hair and latitudinal stomachs that protrude through their shirts like when you were a kid and you stuck a basketball up your shirt.

The Pain of bookstores is that, whenever you see a girl who does read, you're too damn scared to ask her--or anyone for that matter--with the fear of coming off as strange. Also, humans don't interact as friendly-ly as they used to back in the 1900's when you could say, to that guy next to you who is holding the book you really like and say something about it and they wouldn't give you the quick smile, 'yea!' and then  un-comfortableness that fills the air three seconds later. The Pain of Bookstores is that you seem to be the only savior to those poor books that have stood on the shelves for months, and moths, and years. The Pain of Bookstores is that is has become a playground for those who detest the sight of books. The Pain of Bookstores is that it becomes the shaming ground for nerds/geeks/weirdos-joshing about the last one-when some guy comes up smiling with is face all red, and his friend snicking behind him, and they ask you that damned question. 'That a good book?' and you respond, and they nod and go back to their friend and they burst out laughing.

Yeah, that's happened to me a lot.

So, now you understand my pain of bookstores. Hopefully.

Starting to get really angry with bookstores...

Today, after many, many long weeks and months of waiting, I finally made my return to Barnes & Noble. Not because I don't like them, but because of the fact that we have to go all the way across the bridge from here in Rockwall, and to Sasche just to get there, and the first time we went we went to the wrong one. In fact, the first time, near Town East, we found that B&N wasn't even there anymore. So, we rode for what seemed like ages and finally got there. Once I got there, I rushed in with my laptop bag slapping my thigh, and hurried to find the Teen Fiction section. Since last year, I had been waiting to read Fear by Michael Grant because Light would be coming out. I had high hopes that I would finish Fear on time, and how wrong I was. When I arrived at the Teen Fiction section, I was crestfallen.

They didn't have Fear, or any of the other Gone books for that matter except Light and Gone. I don't know what it is with Bookstores and Michael Grant novels, but no one seems to have them. I don't understand why, when his books are extraordinarily popular, and they're so friggin' good. It really pisses me off to know that I have to order Fear from online, and be months behind on finishing the astonishing Gone series. It's not fun being the only one who hasn't read the finale, to know that even though you read most of the books in the series within a day, or less, yet you can't seem to get your hands on the fifth and sixth ones no matter how hard you try.

I tricked himself into thinking that maybe I had overlooked it, or maybe they had it on one of their little show off tables, and again, I was met with nothing but books I had either already read or didn't have the will to even think about. So I wandered, probably looking stupid as I circled around bookcase after bookcase, finding nothing. It seems that I have fallen out of love with YA fiction unless I had already started the series, I guess I just don't hold the capacity for it like I used to. Maybe it has something to do with my reading of Fantasy, Stephen King, and George R. R. Martin, and other adult writers that has me no longer wanting to read the books I used to love the most. It seems that it is true that you can fall out of love with something, and into love with another. It seems that my heart wanes from the meager 300 page books that live in the realm of Teen Fiction, and then it palpitates with joy at the sight of a hardy 1,000 pager.

So, after finding that Fear and I would never dance in the late hours of night, I wandered, aimlessly around the store, bumping into several people in the process, finding myself unable to keep my composure, wanting out, but knowing that I'd only just gotten there. I decided, then, that I would buy A Game of Thrones and start reading the Song of Ice and Fire series with passion. Now, beside me, are the first three books in the series, and I am on page 114 of it out of 807-no I don't count the Appendix as the actual book sense it is only an extension and a reference guide.

I walked around the little shopping mall area that was Firewheel, finding nothing to my liking since I care little about clothes and whatnot, and I didn't have the money nor the confidence to sit at a restaurant and eat. I'd look fatter than I am.

So, I later returned to B&N and walked around aimlessly some more, looked at some writing books, some of the B&N classics, checked the Teen Section again to see if Fear had miraculously appeared from the 7th dimension. It had not. Instead, I found myself at the Fantasy section again, and I nearly bought The Eye of the World, but I told myself that I'd buy it the next time, and I ended up buying A Storm of Swords, though this wasn't that bad because I had a nice little chat with the cashier who was currently on A Clash of Kings. 

And thus, I am angered with bookstores. How dare you call yourself a book store when you are missing several books in the series, how dare you call yourself a bookstore when you don't even have the first edition  paperbacks of A Clash of Kings, and only one TV Tie-In version, how dare you call yourself a book store where you can only buy one book unless you're a billionaire because all of your books are hideously overpriced, and some of them aren't even that good. It just goes to show that this is the reason a lot of older readers remember the time when you could go to the bookshop at the corner and buy a paperback for a buck fifty. Damn, I wish we lived in those times.

Also, can I say that having a B&N membership isn't even that very well worth it? You get a few cents off an item, instead of actual cash. I had to use a gift card I got a year ago and my membership to get the 9.00 A Storm of Swords for 6.49. Whereas, the membership would have only allowed me to get it for 8.81, and that's not very much a bargain.

Sometimes, as much as I detest them, I see why people prefer eBooks. You don't have to worry about the book you've been waiting so long and patiently to get not being there.