The Readers discussion

I just listened to Episode 1-7-4, and there was a quick mention of YA lit--perhaps disparagingly (when the character on "Friends from college" is told he should be writing YA books) and then silence. I feel as if there are some feelings there, and I would love to hear more about them. I teach 13-14-year-olds, and I read a lot of YA. I also avoid a lot of YA.
Maybe you guys could devote a conversation to this genre? Or do you hate it? Would love to hear.

I've talked about it a few times here and there on various episodes. I have no problem with YA--at least not good YA. The show I mentioned kind of takes aim at the formulaic, lets add sexy monsters, aspect of YA.

Years ago I was a volunteer judge for a book blogger award thingy and I was one of the judges for YA blogs. What troubled me were the adults who were seemingly only reading YA and they weren't doing it for professional reasons. One person in particular described how she read a particular book while drinking champagne in business class on a work trip to the Middle East. I couldn't help but think that perhaps it might be time for her to try an adult book. My point was that I discerned in a few of those blogs that some of the readers seemed unable to leave adolescence behind. Didn't seem particularly healthy.

I remember this being a topic of discussion on BOTNS as well. I have conflicting thoughts on this. On the one hand, in general I think it's great whenever anyone reads a book instead of playing on a phone or whatever other time-waster they have readily available. I have a lot of friends who aren't readers (gasp! Shock! I know!) but who read YA books to see what their kids are reading, or because they're more accessible, or take less brain power and they're just tired after a long week at work. But I definitely also agree with Thomas that there are a lot of not good YA books out there, and also that it would be nice if people would expand their reading horizons. After all, isn't that one of the great things about reading - getting to get a different perspective on something? And I certainly have had times where I've been weary after reading a particularly draining book (A Little Life, I'm looking at you...) and need something that's less heavy to shake me out of it. In that sense, YA isn't much different than any other genre books - chick lit, cozy mysteries, thrillers, etc, that can get formulaic and lazy but are still enjoyable and good entertainment. There is some YA literature that is very, very good and worthy of adults reading it - one that immediately pops to mind is The Fever.

BOTNS episode:
http://booksonthenightstand.com/2014/...

and response from author PS Duffy: http://booksonthenightstand.com/2014/...

Just like there are some people who think High School was the best time in their lives there are people who prefer YA.
I would agree they they are probably missing out but even bad YA lit is better than reality TV.