[ SECRET POST #2083 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2083 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 110 secrets from Secret Submission Post #298.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

08. http://i.imgur.com/j6y3W.jpg

[biohazardgirl]

I know how you feel, OP, because I used to feel that way, but I changed my mind basically in the middle of my first year of college. The last book I finished reading (I have started other books without finishing them since) was fantastic but I finished it almost a year ago. Now I mostly read fanfiction so. . .maybe they're like me and they just want some candy of the soul when they're not studying. "Legitimate" books are time consuming to read and keep track of the story, and it's difficult to find fiction books to like because there are SO MANY. Your friends may just be staying within the same 'genre' because they know that they liked it while they were growing up and it's easy to read and enjoy quickly, similar to how people stick with one or a few fandoms and just read everything in that because they know they already like it.

tl;dr: I love David Foster Wallace, but I don't want to read him after a long day of studying organic chemistry.

[(Anonymous)]

OP, exactly how old are you that you consider yourself too old for "young adult" fiction? Because if you're, say, under thirty, this entire secret is laughable. Also, I've read quite a few adult novels in my day and many of them are pretentious as shit. Maybe it's your taste that's in question, here, and not that your friends are sticking to YA/teen novels.

(And I'd be careful about saying adult novels are better than YA novels; don't forget that "adult" novels as a description also includes romance novels.)

[morieris]

What's with the rampant rise of book snobbery as of late? It's not just you...at least I can somewhat sympathize with you because there's a lot of things being published in YA that's is the same standard fare that makes me go read in the children's section, because at least that's a little better.

But it's not like adult novels are a wonderful array of creativity either. I find either poignant middle-age stories or boring mysteries. Strangely, the only adult books I have are historical Chinese fiction.

There's fluff and heavier stuff in every age group.

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly, why do you care? Really, what effect does their choice of reading material have on you? It's their choice, not yours. We're in kind of a YA-lit boom right now, (paranormal romance aside), so it makes sense that they wouldn't want to miss out on new things that we didn't have even five years ago.

Frankly, I haven't found a lot of "adult" novels that I can relate to. There's a lot of divorce and unhappy relationships and messy adult things that really... I don't want to read about that. I want the "falling in love for the first time" teenagers. I want coming of age, finding your place and your path in the steps to adulthood.

Because I'm only in my 20s. I'm just trying to find my way. Maybe reading about young people doing the same will help me. I dislike how most adult books show the terrible side of adulthood. I'm already scared of the future, I don't want to add on more baggage.

[(Anonymous)]

I completely agree, OP.

[intrigueing]

You haven't experienced true hatred until you spend all the free time of your sophomore year of high school in a library filled with 1500 YA novels about teenagers who are too hipstery to be happy with being well-adjusted, healthy, white, stable, and middle class. Whether or not vampires make an appearance.

The hatred. It burned like fire in my 16-year-old veins. Still haven't recovered.

[(Anonymous)]

Are your friends actually reading a romance-steampunk-vampire-sci-fi-fiction? Because that's an impressive combo if pulled off.


Anyway. In many cases, the only difference between YA and not-YA is length and marketing. It actually sounds more like you're complaining about genre fiction, in which case I really have no sympathy for you at all.

[dethtoll]

man, i sympathize, but i have this problem where every time i want to read like, say, "the 37th mandala" (how's that for obscure?) i wind up reading another warhammer 40k omnibus instead.

[elaminator]

I don't even read many YA novels but I feel like saying, "And you get to decide what's decent because why?"

Don't get me wrong, if you disagree with their taste that's fine, but I don't get why it matters so much to you what they read. One of my friends reads not only Twilight, but Christian romance novels. And I just roll my eyes (not in front of her, lol) and leave her to it.

[omens]

If I'm reading, it's YA or comics, most likely.. and I've always read a lot.

[(Anonymous)]

So OP what do you read? Shakespeare? Face it, a lot of adult novels are pretentious shit with bad romance. With YA, I can get through it fairly quickly and drop it without putting too much effort into it. Adult fiction takes more work. I don't have time to invest 3-4 hours in a book and realize it's asinine garbage.

Seriously, what have you been reading?

[masu_trout]

:O Anon! You can't make a secret like this and then not tell us which books you'd pick to send them. (If you're judging your friends' reading tastes, we should get to judge yours in return.)

[(Anonymous)]

I understand your frustration with people who refuse to read anything that isn't YA, but your attitude isn't helping your case.

People who think YA is the be-all end-all: For every type of YA that exists, there's an adult equivalent. Some of it is really very good. Not all adult literature is Literature With A Capital L. Some of it is very similar to YA, just with protagonists that are a bit older.

People who think YA is the pits: We should all be grateful that YA is booming. It gets more kids into reading, and kids who read are more likely to turn into adults who read. And some YA is really very good.

Everyone should read more, be willing to try (not necessarily like or even finish, but just try) new things, and seriously consider honest recommendations from people who know your tastes, even if it's not the type of thing you'd usually read. And also respect each other's reading habits even while you're making and taking suggestions.

[(Anonymous)]

On the one hand I want to say what does it matter to you, what your friends are reading in their free time?

On the other hand I can kind of understand if you want to talk books with them and all you can ever talk about is YA which, with most cliches these entail and lines YA doesn't cross ( in most cases at least) is going to be kind of frustrating after a while.

That said to all those here who are all like, ooh but ADULT fiction is pretentious and boring, you know that the whole scifi and fantasy genre is mostly NOT young adult? You're dismissing Terry Pratchett, Jim Butcher, Tolkien, George R R Martin and a whole slew of popular authors here. Sure you don't have to like most of what they write but fantastic, romantic, witty, silly or engaging stories are not restricted to the YA section. This goes for all the bad stuff as well.

And dismissing 'classics' because they are 'stuffy' is treating a whole varied section of books, written across all genres, styles and centuries unfairly. Sure maybe you didn't like what you've read so far and you have no obligation to look further but gross generalization makes you look nearsighted at best.

[(Anonymous)]

It's because many, many people on the internet are socially inept and/or afraid of transitioning into adulthood, so they try very, very hard to keep themselves feeling "young" by reading YA fiction. It's escapist, which means they don't have to think about how they're unemployed (or wish they had a better job), not in a relationship (or in a lousy one), not feeling "grown up," still living at home with Mom & Dad due to the crappy economy and therefore still feeling very young, etc.

I know I'm going to get called a troll and someone will inevitably comment, "well I'm 45 with a Ph.D and two awesome children and a great husband and I love YA blah blah blah" - but it's true for 95% of YA readers over age 21. Books, movies, fandom in general, all of it is escapist, and what you want to escape to says a lot about how you see yourself and/or what you wish your position in life was.

I really mean nobody any disrespect. If this hits home a bit too hard, I'm sorry, and I hope you figure things out.

[(Anonymous)]

every time someone makes a secret like this all I hear is "weh weh weh why won't my friends accept that my tastes are ~superior~ and they are juvenile cretins for not liking what i like

weh"

[sochitelya]

I'm just annoyed with the current YA boom because I, personally, do not give two shits about whiny 16-year-olds. I didn't even like reading about teenagers when I was a teenager.

And before anyone jumps up my ass, I'm well-aware there's good YA just as there's shit YA, but it seems like all I see lately is "pretty teenage white girl with a slight 'flaw' has to choose between Douchebag 1 and Douchebag 2, and oh yeah, maybe there's some sort of vague problem going on out in the real world?" AKA The Twilight Effect.

Also, the general racism/ableism in the YA books I've seen getting picked up recently.

[lothinielflowermaiden]

I mostly read children's books--some YA, but not paranormal romances like what you talked about. My favorite type of story is anything that has to do with families, and those are a lot easier to find in children's books and YA. I have tried a few adults books that seem to fit into that theme, but I generally end up not liking them as well.

I do read a lot of mysteries, but those are the only adult books I really like, and even then I stick to a short list of author's and maybe add one or two new authors every couple of years. I also read one fantasy author and tie in novels for various movies and tv shows, but on the whole I prefer children's books. I like my stories to be heartwarming, because I have enough depressing things in my real life.

[(Anonymous)]

Why are you judging a huge genre by a small group? YA covers so many awesome "decent" books. I can't tell by the secret if your friends just happen to like the shitty books or if you are just a huge snob and think of all of YA as shitty books.

I think you need to get over your snobbery and just let it go.

[(Anonymous)]

I suggest you try to find a few new friends with similar reading interests. You'll have an outlet and probably care less about what your friends read.

[(Anonymous)]

There's nothing wrong with YA novels. I read quite a few myself and I am FAR out of the age spectrum. Hell, even my octogenarian mother in law reads the odd one or two.

If the story is good, then that's all that matters.

[(Anonymous)]

The most popular genre of fiction out there is the romance novel--books designed to be light and escapist reads, where good defeats evil, love triumphs and everything ends well. When you're reading a book to relax after a stressful day, you don't necessarily want to spend that time struggling with dense or obscure language and complicated plots. I suspect YA novels feed that same craving for light entertainment in convenient book form that romance novels do. You can decide if you see that as a good or bad thing.

[ariakas]

Why are people such ginormous fucking snobs about this.

I don't read YA myself, but I can't understand how it could possibly be worse than "adult" novels by Dan Brown or Tom Clancy. It's still escapism, so why is a middle aged man's escapism superior to that of a young woman's? Why is three paragraphs dedicated to the heroine's hairstyle and angsty love life objectively worse than how this old dude can totally still kick the asses of fit young men and also has awesome guns with awesome accessories? It's all just tripe, right? Why is old person tripe "better"?

Sure there are adult-oriented novels that are classics and genuine pieces of literature, but there are also children's novels like that, like the Narnia series or the Hobbit or Treasure Island or Tom Sawyer or Alice in Wonderland. Why so angry that young people read books for young people?

Seriously, I don't understand. As I said don't read YA and never really have (omg reading grownup books since child!!!11) but don't feel the need to take a proverbial shit all over people who do. I'm 99% sure my Rainbow Six is not more full of merit than someone else's Hunger Games.

Someone please enlighten me. What is so horrible about YA that people who read it suck compared to people who read Danielle Steel and Clive Cussler. It can't be the writing quality or the escapism.

[(Anonymous)]

YA is where the publishers feel they will get the best money right now. I wish I had the choices as a 15 year old reader that are present to me in my late 20s. I ended up reading stuff like Francesca Lia Block, Fear Street, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and The Outsiders, because that's what was available to me. I would've loved to have a book like Hunger Games when I was 15-16.

My sister's friend is a romance writer. She's writing a romance with two 20-something characters. Since the novel is light on the sexytimes, multiple people at her romance convention (agents and the like) suggested she lower the ages of her character so she can submit it as a YA. Purely because it's light on the sex. I suspect this phenomenon is pretty across the board, even in non-romance fields. Light on the abuse, sexy, or dysfunction? Better be YA!