Freedom

Hello people of the internet, long time no speak.

My exams are finally over and this means I have absolutely no excuse not to be writing on here anymore and so I'm back! You lucky lucky readers. Recently I saw a large debate going on over twitter after this article was published on the internet and having only just read it I mistakenly assumed, from the twitosphere, that the author was saying that YA novels weren't good literature. However having read the article I get the feeling the author was trying to almost shame adults into reading books only aimed at adults. Also according to her I won't be in the YA demographic this time next year and so cannot lower myself to the embarrassment of reading a YA novel. What?!

I have always had a passion for reading and have never put a book down purely because it wasn't aimed at my age group. For example at the moment I'm re reading Pride and Prejudice but the next book I'm thinking of reading is aimed at 8-12year olds. But I'm going to read it because I read the first one in the series years afo and remember loving it and now I'd like to finish the series. I certainly won't be embarrassed about reading any book, except possibly books along the lines of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Another example is a series of books I read as a 9/10year old and due to the sheer length of the trilogy, about 900pages I think, I lost the motivation to finish it in one go. I think it took me a year to finish as I put it down halfway through and forced myself to finish it and I'll be honest I didn't enjoy it. So last year I picked it up again and read it cover to cover in half the time I had first time round as well as enjoying it. However apparently because the series wasn't aimed at my age group I should be mortified to be reading this book.

However I do feel it's important for people to read a wide variety of books. My bookshelf contains books from Alice in Wonderland to Harry Potter to Jane Eyre. Also on the point of The Fault In Our Stars not being good literature I have to agree, while it's an incredibly thought provoking, heart breaking and well written book I wouldn't class it as good literature. But I would not class 90% of books that I've read as good literature and I'm not sure I could define good literature. It would probably be books that have dramatically affected me and still do after I've finished them and there are very very few books who do. However YA is one of my favourite genres and calling Divergent "transparently trashy stuff" is a whole other ball game.

I think my main problem with this article is that the author seems to have forgotten the main reason people read books which is because they enjoy them. I read books that look interesting and exciting and just because they're not aimed at me I don't see why I shouldn't read them. For years people who enjoy chick lit or trashy romances have been frowned upon by `literary snobs` who only read Dickens or Bronte and that's  their choice of books and who am I to judge them for it? Yet it seems OK for them to judge us for what we read. Many people use books to escape the confines of their lives and I strongly feel that people should be allowed the freedom to read what they want without being judged and nobody should ever be embarrassed about what they're reading.

Rhona x