524-YA Books!

I was looking forward to hearing what Dr. Irwin had to say about Young Adult Literature.  I have loved getting to read adults books this semester since I am usually surrounded by children's books, but last year during my Materials for Youth class, I fell in love with Young Adult books.  My best friend and I are addicted to Twilight, we have read then multiple times and were among the 12-18 year olds that were at the theatre at midnight when New Moon came out.  We even have "Property of Cullen"  sweatshirts made.  Yes, we were those people! :) haha  We now can't seem to get enough to vampire books.  She has devoured the True Blood series and we are both addicted to the House of Night Series.

I agree with Dr. Irwin that teens read YA "edgy" books because they can relate to it.  I teach in IPS and some of my kids have had it pretty rough.  They can relate to the drugs, alcohol, abuse, sex, etc.  But I also think they read it because they want to read about someone's life that is worse than theirs.  I think so that they can say, see my life isn't so bad, look at this kid's.  They love the fast paced short stories.  They love that they aren't in the children's section.  I think it makes them feel older and more important.

I think for the same reasons teens read YA, my age group reads YA.  I love fast paced books.  Otherwise, I fall asleep.  I have to get thrown in to a book and get hooked.  I like a book that I take everywhere and can't stand to put down.  I like the drama.  I grew up very very sheltered out in the fields of Kokomo.  I went to a country high school where diversity was a word that didn't exist.  You were either Baptist, Methodist, or Catholic...that was our diversity.  So to read about inner city kids going through all that horrible stuff not only makes me glad I grew up where I did, but also gives me an idea of what others's lives are like. 

I was surprised that the older generation of women are loving YA, but like I pointed out in class, they watch Lifetime and well the same type of drama is in those movies that is also in YA books.  I am sure they, too, appreciate the fast paced shorter novels.

Regardless of the reasons why people are loving YA, they are and we have to make sure as librarians that we keep up on it to be able to recommend it to those who want it.  I know with budget cuts things are getting tight everywhere.  I hope that YA departments can stay in tack.  Teens don't want to go to the children's section to get their books and they think they are "old" if they go to the adult's section.  Teen are "special" people and therefore need the extra "special" attention.

524-Fake Memoirs??? Really???

When doing the readings for class last week, I hadn't had the chance to read about the individual fake memoirs, just about the general topic.  When Andrea mentioned the one about the child walking across Europe and living with the wolves, I had to go back and read about it in detail.  Reading about the Holocaust is a big interest of mine, especially about the children who survived the Nazis.  Even though this is not  real story, I want to read it.  I don't understand why an author would want to write an untruth.  Why not just write a Historical Fiction???  I guess it wouldn't have the same "wow" or "shock" factor but to lie?  I don't get it!

I pasted the link for the book that caught my attention.  I am going to try and find a copy of this book to read as fiction since that is obviously what it is. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misha:_A_M%C3%A9moire_of_the_Holocaust_Years

I wonder if authors get punished for writing something and claiming it to be true?  I mean in education it is called cheating and they are reprimanded.  

This article is also about fake memoirs.  I found it to be interesting and thought I would share.  He proposes answers to the questions I have already asked.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/an-experiment-for-fake-memoirs/ 

As for legal ramifications, I did a search to see if it is illegal to write something and pose it as truth when in reality it isn't.  I found the answers on this site to be interesting. 

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100221101511AAxFMQA 

Regardless, I think it is very shifty to write something and claim for it to be real.  This is not fair to those who have had things happen to them that is worthy to write about, but if too many people write about fake real things, then people will begin to doubt the actual real stories about there.  We don't want to lessen or cheapen their experiences. 

524-Is Reader Advisory better in a book store vs. a library?

Two of the books I wanted to read for this class were not at my local library.  Instead of taking time to find it at another library or do ILL, I cheated and went to Borders.  Yes, I know, as a librarian this surely puts me on the black list, however, I would rather spend money instead of time I don't have!  I felt better about buying the books knowing my best friend, my mom, and my sisters would probably read them as well. 


Since the first book I was looking for is a Romance, I went to the section of the store with the little sign "Romance" hanging above the books.  It wasn't there...so I asked a female employee who happened to be walking by if she could help me find it.  We looked in the computer and didn't see it, but did find out I was spelling the authors first name wrong.  So I asked her if she knew of anything that would be similar.  She mentioned a few authors and asked if I had read them and told me a little bit about each.  She mentioned a few times about books that her reading group was reading so it was apparent she herself is an avid reader.  She asked what about that book that specifically caught my eye.  I told her it was mentioned in our text and that it had some "hot" scenes in it.  We eventually settled down to two choices, one by the same author and one by another.  I chose the one by the same author. 


While we were walking back toward the front of the store a book caught my attention and we started talking about it.  This led to her advising me on other books that are "popular" and since they were buy one get one 50%, I ended up with two books to read for fun.


As I was talking to her and she was asking me questions, I thought about the various blogs or conversations in class about the secret shopper assignment.  For the most part, people are having disappointing experiences at libraries.  I had a positive experience at the bookstore.  I wonder if we did the same assignment at bookstores if our experiences would be different.  Since retail is big on customer service, are we going to get better service at a store?  Libraries should be concentrating on customer service, especially, reader advisory since it is there job! 


I asked the woman who I was speaking with if she had an MLS.  She said no, but she had thought about going to school and had been working at Borders for 12 years.  She sure does have the experience and knowledge and I encouraged her to go to school. 


Maybe I got lucky and found a bookstore worker who actually knew what she was talking about.  Maybe that is the norm?  I wonder....


Anybody had any similar experiences?  Thoughts?  Opinions? 


Or is it just me? :) haha