Monday, April 6, 2009

Teen Fiction

I think I may be the last person in the fantasy/fiction reading world to incorporate YA fiction to my reading list. In fact, the YA market is doing so well, it's one of the few that hasn't been affected by the economy. And there's so much great YA literature out there! Several authors I read (P. C. Cast, Rachel Caine) write adult and YA fantasy. And it doesn't take a genius to see that YA fantasies are often the most popular books out there. (Anyone remember a character called Harry Potter? What about a book called Twilight?)

I haven't made the switch/integration yet, but I'm on the cusp. One of my friends has offered to let me borrow Twilight. I'm resisting, futilely at this point, I think. I might be even more tempted were my shelves not full of adult fantasy novels waiting to be read. There's so many books I already want to read, to think of adding all these YA novels is daunting.

I don't remember such variety of fantasy novels being available to me when I was reading YA novels some 15 or so years ago. Were they there and I missed them?

Which brings up another question: Do you think that teens are reading more now than they were, say, 15 years ago? Or do you think that more adults are reading YA novels, which is what is bumping up their sales?

Finally, if you already like YA novels, you'll like today's NON post. This week, YA author Courtney Sheinmel talks about her debut novel, My So-Called Life.

2 comments:

Ashley Graham said...

Hmmm...I think teens might be reading more. I'm not sure. I do, however, think that more and more adults are beginning to read young adult novels. That's the genre I hope to hit up after I get done with the mainstream fiction novels I'm working on now.

I, for one, enjoy young adult novels almost more than adult ones. Who would've thought?

Then again, I'm only 22. So maybe it's not such a surprising thing, lol.

Rebecca Chastain said...

I would put money on more adults reading teen novels than more teens reading in general, too. Of my friends, most read YA novels as their genre of choice. Maybe I'll join y'all soon. :)