"No one can be lonely who has a book for company." ~ Nelle Reagan

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Age Appropriate Reading: Booking Through Thursday 5/12/11

If you'd like to join in on Booking Through Thursday, just click here.


This week's question is: Do you read books “meant” for other age groups? Adult books when you were a child; Young-Adult books now that you’re grown; Picture books just for kicks … You know … books not “meant” for you. Or do you pretty much stick to what’s written for people your age?

I read to suit my mood and tastes.  As a book reviewer, I read books for all age groups, from young children's books to adult and all in between. For my personal enjoyment, however, I read adult books with the odd exception of a YA novel. Case in point, I've read and re-read the Harry Potter and Twilight books. Those are my favourite YA reads to date. My adult preferences include anything by John Grisham, Carolyn Hart, Agatha Christie, Michael Crichton, Nicholas Sparks, Richard Paul Evans, Laura Lippman, to name a few.  I like to read the works of debuting authors as well. Shilpi Somaya Gowda's Secret Daughter is my favourite read of 2011. If you haven't yet read this amazing novel, you simply must! (I should be on the PR team for all the gushing I've done about this masterpiece!! ;))

As a child, I often read books that were "old" for me. For instance, in grade four I had read an adult/YA novel called Midnight by Rutherford Montgomery (a horse story, of course) and loved it so much that I coerced my teacher into reading it aloud for our in-class reading time. She did so but it didn't keep the others' attention so she quickly ditched it saying they weren't ready for a book that was written for an adult audience. Not that it contains "adult" content, but that the style of writing and the verbage was beyond their comprehension level. I did read a lot of age appropriate novels then too. Especially anything written by Marguerite Henry. She wrote horse stories, mostly, and I love horses, so it was a natural pairing. From childhood, though, my favourite book was Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.  I enjoyed, also, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, especially since, at the time, there was a regular tv program based on the two series. 

In my teenage years I read a bit of Stephen King with Firestarter being my favourite of his works.  I tried Harlequin romance but quickly got bored with it as it seemed to be the same story repeated again and again, only with different characters.

The best enjoyment comes from reading that which you find satisfaction from.  I like to branch out into different genres, including business books occasionally, to broaden my horizons.  I still have those favourite genres that I will return to time and again because that's what brings gratification.  And you, dear reader, do you read beyond your age?  Do you go back and re-read childhood/YA favourites?  Or, do you stick with age appropriate reading?  Please take a moment to leave a comment.  I'd love to know what you have to say.


12 comments:

  1. Thanks for stopping by my blog & commenting. The YA books you mentioned, Harry Potter & Twilight, are my favs in that genre as well. However, as you stated, I tend to stick with my favorites which would be more adult-oriented genres.

    Love your blog. I'm your newest follower ♥

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  2. Yes, variety keeps life interesting.

    Thanks for visiting my blog.

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  3. I believe most of the YAs can be read by adults, mainly when they're written by adults!

    I like reading YAs sometimes, depending on my mood ;]

    Thanks for stopping by my blog!

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  4. Funny, I didn't even think about rereading childhood favorites when I answered the question. I do that all the time! But now that I think about it some more, I'm not sure I'd count those rereads as books "not meant for" my age group. When I reread those childhood faves I'm not really reading them with adult eyes, but rather reliving the childhood experience. Hmmmm...

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  5. I have promised myself, once I am caught up with my request review pile (lol) that I am going to step outside of my comfort zone and try to read other genres. I enjoyed reading your response to today's question. Thank you for stopping by my place.

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  6. Yes, I read all genres for all ages.

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  7. I never know what my mood is for reading I find book more fun by just grabbing on and reading. I use to read Steven King but I think I purposely blocked all the books out of my head because I can't remember any of them except one short story and one I didn't finish "IT".

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  8. I like to read adult fiction most of the time. I do enjoy a memoir once in awhile.

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  9. I love the Harry Potter series. I'm not that impressed with Twilight though I have yet to finish the series.

    I don't really remember The Babysitter Club series so I can't tell you whether or not you missed out on anything.

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  10. Oh, how I loved Stephen King. I still do, though I haven't read anything by him since last year, I believe.

    One summer when I was 12, I had a debt at the library (late fees) and they wouldn't let me borrow any books until I paid it and I had no money. So I went through everything we had in the house until the only option left was my older sister's Harlequin novels, and I almost cried out of frustration. Even at that age I could tell it was all just the same story over and over again. Needless to say, as soon as I got my monthly allowance the first thing I did was pay off my debt.

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  11. Hello Shirley,

    If I am asked to review a book by an author or publisher, I will switch to whichever genre is necessary and hope to offer a fair assessment regardless.

    Generally however, I believe in reading for enjoyment and not to be 'trendy', so I will read the genres that I enjoy and blog about those books, whether or not they are the latest releases, or high up the popularity stakes.

    Yvonne

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  12. Vilken trevlig blog du har! Det var i tonåren jag började läsa på allvar. Jag läste mestadels oberoende av ålders- kategori. Bara jag gillade temat. Minns en bok av en turkisk författare Kemal som skrev "Låt tistlarna brinna" Mycket bra. Ha en skön söndag! Zinnia

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