My family and I went on a vacation recently that involved a two-day drive to Florida (and back again at the end of the week). I brought three books with me. I honestly thought this would be more than enough. I am a fast reader, and I truly love to read, but things like smartphones (and along with it, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Candy Crush—just to name a few distractions) have affected my attention span enough in recent years that I don't read as much as I used to. I do make a conscious effort to go to the library, keeping one or two fresh books on hand to read during my lunch break at work and occasionally before bed (although I'm usually playing Candy Crush, I have to admit). This is still pretty sad, considering that in my preteen and teen years, I would check out, say, eight books at a time from the library, and they would last me about a week (two at the most).
Back to our vacation. I hadn't made time lately to get to the library, and by the time I thought about taking a new book or two with me on our trip, it was too late to request a specific title—a method I've had more luck with lately than simply randomly picking one off the shelves. I've definitely gotten pickier since my teenage reading years.
But those years were also when I read some of my all-time favorite books. Yes, those included Young Adult novels, a genre that has (in my opinion) suffered a bad reputation due to the Twilight series and its imitators. I don't read much YA now, but my favorite YA books from way back when still hold up marvelously, and I don't think it's just nostalgia talking.
Two out of the three books I took with me on vacation were YA novels. I had decided to just grab a few of my favorites to take with me since I knew I would enjoy them, and it sucks to be stuck with a boring, stupid, and/or poorly written book on a trip. Somewhat surprisingly, I actually didn't read anything on the first day—and this was riding in a minivan for nine hours! (Give or take.) Am I the only one who sometimes puts off reading (or watching a movie, or listening to a song) because I'm just not ready or in the mood to handle an emotional experience—whether happy or sad? Whoa. That's a little deep. Maybe we shouldn't go there in this post!
But on the second day, I started the first of my three books, and by the morning of our last day of the journey (on our way home at this point), I had run out of books and was kicking myself for not bringing at least one more.
There's just something so good about reading a book you have read before, especially when it's one you love (obviously). It's familiar, and the characters are like old friends, but you'll also notice new details each time you read it, even if it's the thousandth time. That's because you're at a different stage of your life during each reading, so certain plot twists, characters, and even phrases will speak to you in a different way.
I'll use examples from my three vacation books.
- The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan. This book was published when I was in middle school, so I was probably around 11 or 12 when I first read it. It takes place in medieval times, but its language is so easy to understand while remaining achingly beautiful. Lest this become a Goodreads review (if you're interested in those, check out my profile), I'll just focus on what I got out of this recent rereading. First of all, Jordan's writing and characterization is so good. I could learn a lot from her, and I need to read more of her books. As much as I love this one, I have never read anything else she's written. Secondly, the romantic subplot—which at times is also the main plot; it's hard to describe—struck a more profound chord with me this time than I remembered it had in the past. That's funny to me because I've become much less romantic as I grow up and realize that dating is really hard (especially in this increasingly tech-savvy world—but that's a story for a different post) and discover that I'm not really sure what I want in life. But the characters who fall in love in this story don't do it in some cheesy, romance novel way (which I do enjoy in a book from time to time, as long as I know what I'm getting into). Even though this is a book for teens (I guess), its message about love is very refreshing and mature.
- Goose Chase by Patrice Kindl. A very popular sub-genre of YA fiction when I was a teenager was the retold fairy tale. Updated spins on the classic Cinderella story were everywhere (my favorites being Ella Enchanted—read it, and don't watch the movie!—and Just Ella), but my favorite fractured fairy tale was Goose Chase by Patrice Kindl. It mixes elements of several fairy tales, including Grimm tales "Goose Girl," "The Six Swans," and "Rapunzel." I think I loved this book so much because of the magical elements, especially the main character's magical hair (it glows when she sings! OK, it doesn't, but it does shed gold dust when she brushes it). This book is also very funny. I think some of the humor slipped by me in my first few readings. Another thing I noticed with this last rereading is that the narrator is much more unreliable than I probably originally noticed, and also a bit of a brat...but still likable. I don't think the book is as clever as I originally thought—perhaps because it's much shorter than I remembered, so it didn't seem to hold as much weight as I remember Ella Enchanted having. Which means I just need to reread that one next.
- The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. This is not a YA book! I discovered Barbara Kingsolver about five years ago when I bought Animal Dreams at a used book sale—I'm into American Indians, and the font used on the book cover as well as the blurb on the back piqued my interest. I loved the book—and it just gets better each time I read it! But that's another post for yet another day—so I sought out more of her stuff. I consider The Bean Trees my favorite, although Animal Dreams is a close second. I could write an entire post (and then some) about my love for Kingsolver, so I'll stick with what I love about this particular novel: It's simply refreshing that the main character falls in love with a married man (who appears to return her feelings somewhat), but.......SPOILER.......nothing happens. Too often, authors go that route because it's "romantic," but that's usually when I lose too much respect for the characters to enjoy the rest of the book. On the other hand, I gain so much respect—for the characters and for the author, too—in situations such as the end of The Bean Trees. Even when it's not even the point of the book. The Bean Trees is about so much more. So what did I notice on this recent reread? Kingsolver's details are amazing. In some of her novels (such as Flight Behavior), her writing can be too detailed and flowery, but in The Bean Trees her writing is pretty close to perfection. She's another one who I can—and have—learned a lot from.
I can't come up with a better way to end this post than with this cheesy thought: The books we read—the ones we love and the ones we don't—shape who we are, whether we are writers or not. So reread the ones you love. They're a part of you now.
