I do call myself a booknerd, after all

So yesterday, Melissa came in to work and dumped the first Twilight book on my desk and said, "I read this in four days. Read it, so we can discuss."

Who am I to argue? I started reading it at lunch yesterday, after I went to the library to get a few more books I've been commanded to read. So far it's pretty blech, and I have a feeling it will only get worse, because I'm sorry, but the mortal lady/vampire fellow romance has already been done, like, quite well, and Bella Swan is no Buffy Summers. Not even close. Is Bella going to have to kill Edward to save the world from being sucked into a hell dimension? Then WHY SHOULD I CARE? Cedric Diggory is prettier than David Boreanaz, but that is neither here nor there, is it? Plus, the writing is ungainly. I hate it when a first person narrator has to describe her own appearance--there is no way to do that smoothly, and Stephenie Meyer doesn't even come close. Or when the narrator has to say things like, "I'm clumsy." Hello! Show, don't tell! And why are the vampires so beautiful? Is that a thing with vampires I was unaware of? Because they're immortal, they're all beautiful? Kind of...boring, I have to say.

Anyway, Melissa and I let curiosity get the best of us here, and we had to see what all the fuss is about. The fuss, it would seem, is more than this bloated romance novel deserves, so I have decided to make a list of my favorite young adult fiction.

1. A Wrinkle in Time and its companions by Madeleine L'Engle (aka The Time Quartet, plus An Acceptable Time: Here we have a story that is essentially about the battle between good and evil, and it is perfection. The best I've ever seen it done, honestly. JRR Tolkein can suck it.
2. The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder: Oh, these are classics, and I think they're a charming way to get insight into America's pioneer history.
3. The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley: Few authors can create entire new worlds so well, and I am utterly jealous of the way McKinley can. These books are engrossing and feature totally badass female heroes. I've only read each book twice, but I will reread them many, many times, I'm sure.
4. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman: This series does so many things well; it's characters are rich--no one is a cliche; it's a shot to organized religion, which I have to say I enjoy; and it also gives us entire new worlds. Imaginative, well-written, and it has the best young girl hero ever written by a man.
5. Judy Blume's ouevre: Really. I read almost everything she'd written when I was ten or eleven. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret is kind of quaint these days, but I couldn't get enough of it. She could write about young kids without sounding patronizing. Loved it.
6. Little Women and its sequels by Louisa May Alcott: Oh, come on. Classics. Everyone who hasn't read Little Women, do it right now.
7. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis: Okay, I've become somewhat disenchanted with the Christian propaganda of these novels, but when I was a kid I couldn't stop reading them. Plus, they are very imaginative, and if you ignore the Christian subtext, the stories are quite good.
8. The Giver by Lois Lowry: This book is haunting and lovely. It's simply written, but it really gets to you. I can't recommend this one highly enough.
9. Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Leviathan: This is probably the most recent YA novel to worm its way into my heart. I'm way past the YA target audience, but when YA fiction is good, that doesn't matter.
10. Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden: I've said this before, I know, but this is the best gay young adult novel I have ever read. Lesbians of the world, read this book.

This list wasn't ranked; I just wrote down books as they occurred to me. Either way, all of them are better written, more imaginative, and more affecting than Twilight. I am getting the sense that this is just a PG-13 romance novel. Like Gone with the Wind for preteens. Plus vampires! Melissa's husband called it "literary fast food," which I think may be spot on. Easy to read, mildly amusing, but it rots your brain. Somewhere on the internet, I read that it was being called "professional fan fiction" which is also striking me as quite apt. We'll see if Bella goes through any kind of transformation--if any of the characters change. That'll maybe redeem it a little bit.