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I write for a variety of websites, some of which are geared toward
adults, others that are geared to a teen or "tween" audience.
For one "young adult" site in particular, I have been
writing reviews for books as varied as Madison Smartt Bell's MASTER
OF THE CROSSROADS to Mary McGarry Morris's FIONA RANGE, thinking
that I was spewing forth my hard and fast opinions on an audience
that actually loves books the way Bookreporter readers love books.
However,
when the owner of this website ran into some financial problems
with an additional media interest (a television channel that no
one can access through the New York-Metro area cable system), they
decided to combine the site I write for with a TV-oriented teen
site that they also own. Fine --- the amalgamation of different
websites into one web voice has been done before and, surely, in
this time of financial transition, it will be done again and again.
I can accept that. What I cannot accept is that they
informed those of us who write about books for the site that books
would no longer be part of the format --- instead, the bent would
be on clothes and TV and boys.
Now,
I remember being a teenager (I'm not that over-the-hill yet). I
also remember loving books and reading being part of my everyday
life, as much as my latest crush and my addiction to prime-time
shows like "One Day At a Time" or "M*A*S*H*."
I was a normal kid but I didn't shun books for my adolescent pursuits
--- instead, they often fueled the desire I had to be out in the
world, exploring, learning, experiencing.
There
is a dumbing-down in American popular culture that often makes me
quite ill because it's all about fear --- people who read are "too
smart for their own good," as the most Old World of my immigrant
family relations used to say. People who don't read still think
I'm a literary snob because I love Joyce and Faulkner. I'm even
naming my soon-to-be-born first child after Carson McCullers, even
though I'm an even bigger fan of Flannery O'Connor (my Southern-born
husband thinks that 'Flannery' would be a burdensome name for a
small child --- oh, well). I've also read hundreds of biographies
(as I've probably mentioned before, I'm addicted to British Royalty
as well as chatty books about famous writers) and every single book
Oprah has picked for her Book Club, for better or for worse ---
my tastes run the eclectic gamut from bestsellers to classics to
obscure first novels. People both marvel at and mock me for my obsession
with books. So be it.
I still
think the world would be a better place if more girls read books
instead of watching Aaron Spelling soap operas and trying to look
like Britney Spears (of course, you can read and do these things
too, you know! It's amazing how multitasking a human being can be
if they try!) Which is why I was so disheartened to hear that this
website, run by a woman I used to respect very highly for her maverick
feminist attitudes, felt like there was no place for a discussion
of contemporary literature amongst the pop-confection elements of
a teen's daily life. After all, wasn't Harry
Potter, which is geared to the prepubescent age, one of the most
significant maelstroms of publicity and profits that the book industry
has ever seen?
Surely,
these girls, the ones who have read Books 1 through 4 many times
over, will move on to other books by authors like Laura Ingalls
Wilder, Lois Lenski, Judy Blume, E. B. White, won't they; particularly
now that J. K. Rowling has announced that the next book won't be
out for two years? Reading is a fever that is contagious --- it
spreads and breaks into a frenzied fire that one simple book won't
put out. Those of you who have this particular "illness"
know that, once its light has shined upon you, you will never be
able to live without it. Thus begins a life of the mind, an endless
journey for the next great read, the next great literary adventure.
Shouldn't everyone be exposed to this wonderful way to both wile
away hours and expand one's mind?
I have
to give The Book Report Network a pat on the back here. Even before
I wrote for them, I read them. I was heartened to find a spot on
the web that was full of people like me --- people who, luckily,
were introduced to books at some influential point in their life
and, with this love of books, were living the lives this "hobby"
afforded them --- a life of constant enrichment. We are all the
wealthier in many ways for every page we turn. And so I think it
is a disservice to young women everywhere that the websites that
most attract their attention don't bother to open them up to this
wondrous, educational and, ultimately, emotional odyssey that could
affect their changing lives for the better throughout their entire
existence. Shame on them and good for us!
May
2001 be the best reading year we have all ever had.
---
Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
(c)
Copyright 2001, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
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