Introduction

I have too many books. I have too many books, not enough bookshelves, and nowhere to put new ones. Still, I keep acquiring more books. Some of them are necessary. I'm just about to start my last semester in grad school and somehow books for my thesis keep appearing out of nowhere and adding themselves to my piles. Mostly, though, the collection keeps growing because I love to read and I can't resist new books. As someone who's starting a blog on books that seems fairly obvious, but I thought I would put it out there anyway. 

In order to preserve my sanity after reading too many books about gender theory and nationalist philosophy and post-modern/post-structural/post-understandable manifestos, I read young adult fiction. Now, I read lots of other things too, but mainly I read books written for teenagers and (occasionally) children. Yes, that includes Harry Potter. No, that doesn't include Twilight. I love fantasy, but I'm always willing to stray from the genre. I adore strong female protagonists, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to read a book simply because the lead character is female (or that I won't read books about boys). 

Most of the reviews of YA fiction give at least some sort of nod toward the intended readership. I'm not going to do that. I'm not a teenager anymore and I'd like to hope that I don't think like one. I'm not friends with many teenagers. The only developmental psychology that know I learned in 11th grade and it's been long enough that I don't remember most of it. Most importantly, I don't want the same things from a book that I wanted as a teenager. So, there will be no nods, no vague references to what a hypothetical teenager might or might not get out of a specific book. I don't know. If you want to know, go ask a teenager. 

From this point forward, this blog will be devoted to reviews of young adult fiction. I won't go back and review anything that I read years ago. It's a little late for a Harry Potter review (and that's probably the last time I'll mention it). But if I've just read it for the first time, regardless of the publication date, I'll probably write a review. In the same vein, if I read something that isn't YA fiction but it blows my mind, I'll probably write about that too. 

So ends my introduction. I'll probably have a real book review by the end of next week. I'm in the middle of reading The Strongbow Saga by Judson Roberts and that seems like a good place to start.