I feel your pain about books moldering in your parent's basement. I discovered about 10 years ago that 95% of my teenage books were eaten away by crazy black mold and completely unsalvageable.
My middle school friend Amy had the whole Sunfire set, that I repeatedly borrowed over the course of several years. I've been slowly trying to track them down (as well as the Choose Your Own Adventure series and the Sweet Valley High books) at library and used book sales, but so far I've only found a few. I say I'm doing this for my daughter... but really it's for my own nostalgic value. "Buying books for my kids" gives me a great excuse to buy and indulge in a lot of young adult titles. I will definitely check out Marr's books as they sound really interesting.
As far as stuff like Twilight and VC Andrews - I figure my kids will have to go out and discover that shit on their own. I wouldn't necessarily stop them from reading it (even though I think parts of them have horribly repellent lessons about life) but I'm not going to provide it for them either.
What gets me is that grown up people (consequently, those who should know better) just want to love all over it because the main characters don't have sex until marriage. Never mind that the books are full of bad writing, weak characterization, a lazy theme, and an anti-plot repellent that must have given the screenplay adaptation writers fits. But it's "recommended reads" because the teenagers don't have sex. ::head, meet desk::
Oh man, I hear you on this one. I was reading a Wall Street Journal article a while back where a commentator wrote a long article gushing about exactly this. I was, quite frankly, baffled. I mean sure, they don't have sex (I am convinced this is only because Edward is such a raging wussy), but their relationship is far from healthy. The commentator completely turned a blind eye to the way Edward stalks Bella in a way that in reality would get his ass thrown into jail. She also ignored the fact that Bella's parents are completely absent from the picture as far as I can tell, have zero expectations of their kid, and do nothing to protect or enlighten her about the world at large. And Bella herself, good god... is she really a role model that you'd want a kid following?
I'd rather have my kid read a book/watch a movie where the kids have sex with realistic consequences, than read this stupid glossed over psycho shit masquerading as an epic, yet wholesome romance.
So I definitely get why people get fired up, I do too. I just also think that most kids are smarter than we give them credit for, and that if you do your job as a parent and show your kid what healthy relationships actually are then something like Twilight isn't going to have much of a long term effect. Eventually, most kids will get a clue and realize that they really don't want what Bella and Edward have. At least I hope so, lol.
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Date: 2009-02-24 02:29 pm (UTC)My middle school friend Amy had the whole Sunfire set, that I repeatedly borrowed over the course of several years. I've been slowly trying to track them down (as well as the Choose Your Own Adventure series and the Sweet Valley High books) at library and used book sales, but so far I've only found a few. I say I'm doing this for my daughter... but really it's for my own nostalgic value. "Buying books for my kids" gives me a great excuse to buy and indulge in a lot of young adult titles. I will definitely check out Marr's books as they sound really interesting.
As far as stuff like Twilight and VC Andrews - I figure my kids will have to go out and discover that shit on their own. I wouldn't necessarily stop them from reading it (even though I think parts of them have horribly repellent lessons about life) but I'm not going to provide it for them either.
What gets me is that grown up people (consequently, those who should know better) just want to love all over it because the main characters don't have sex until marriage. Never mind that the books are full of bad writing, weak characterization, a lazy theme, and an anti-plot repellent that must have given the screenplay adaptation writers fits. But it's "recommended reads" because the teenagers don't have sex. ::head, meet desk::
Oh man, I hear you on this one. I was reading a Wall Street Journal article a while back where a commentator wrote a long article gushing about exactly this. I was, quite frankly, baffled. I mean sure, they don't have sex (I am convinced this is only because Edward is such a raging wussy), but their relationship is far from healthy. The commentator completely turned a blind eye to the way Edward stalks Bella in a way that in reality would get his ass thrown into jail. She also ignored the fact that Bella's parents are completely absent from the picture as far as I can tell, have zero expectations of their kid, and do nothing to protect or enlighten her about the world at large. And Bella herself, good god... is she really a role model that you'd want a kid following?
I'd rather have my kid read a book/watch a movie where the kids have sex with realistic consequences, than read this stupid glossed over psycho shit masquerading as an epic, yet wholesome romance.
So I definitely get why people get fired up, I do too. I just also think that most kids are smarter than we give them credit for, and that if you do your job as a parent and show your kid what healthy relationships actually are then something like Twilight isn't going to have much of a long term effect. Eventually, most kids will get a clue and realize that they really don't want what Bella and Edward have. At least I hope so, lol.