Friday 9 November 2012

MY YA CONFESSIONS #3 - I really should be reading more UKYA...

My reading habits fluctuate, much like everyone's else's I should imagine. Although, recently, they've come to a bit of a standstill. You know the usual excuses, life, kids, work, blah blah blah, so I won't go on about it. BUT I really need something to give me a bit of kick start and this post gave me just that the other week. The lovely Flannery over at The Readventurer put together this rather astonishing wall of awesome UKYA titles. when she asked me to contribute my Top Ten, I was like 'yeah, sure, no probs...' but when I actually came to jot them down, something struck me. Some of my all time favourite titles have been written by UK authors, so I had no grappling around for ten titles (although I cheated a bit with Rosoff and Ness, but they live here, so there). But when I noticed that my choices we limited to so few UK authors, I realised I haven't actually read a huge amount of UKYA, in whole the scheme of bookish things..

And then I looked at my bookshelf and on the old kindle and noticed a few more things, namely the sheer amount UKYA waiting to be read, a lot of it also featuring on Flann's wall. So why do I choose to overlook it so much? The subject matter is intriguing, the covers are striking and original, so why aren't I chomping at the bit to devour them? I think one of the issues I've had in the past with some titles is that sometimes the writing style can feel a bit young and considered in comparison to some titles from Australia, say. Is this me being ridiculously unfair? Or maybe this is just my very narrow opinion as an older YA reader. But it is definitely wrong of me to generalise based on a few off experiences.

So here is my pledge. I will now be much more patriotic in my reading habits and will go on a UKYA binge for a bit. I have kicked off by continuing with His Dark Materials trilogy - something I started with Jo's Pullman Week a little while ago. Although I won't be reviewing them because, well, I wouldn't have the foggiest where to start. I've never read anything like them before and probably never will again. There you go, that was a mini review of sorts.

So here's a few title's I'm going to be picking up in the next few months...

Twelve Minutes to MidnightDoing ItThis is Not Forgiveness
I Capture the CastleSugar RushLife: An Exploded Diagram
AdorkableThe Enemy (The Enemy, #1)Naked


There will be more, but I have temporarily misplaced my Kindle and I can't remember what else I have on there. Let's see how I get on...


6 comments:

  1. YES YES YES.
    I'm so excited for you to read all those books. Especially Naked and The Enemy! GAAAH. So good.

    I need to read This is Not Forgiveness too. I've had it on my Kindle for ages (wasn't it a Daily Deal a while ago?) but I keep flicking over it.


    ps. I'm so so sooo glad you loved His Dark Materials. I don't think I could have handled it if you hadn't. <3

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks lovely Jo :)
    Just need to find the bloody Kindle first. Grrr

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm glad I could inspire you just a little bit to read more UK YA. There are so many that sound amazing. I've wanted to read the Charlie Higson zombie books since Jo raved on about them and I definitely want to read Melvin Burgess. Someone on GR told me that one of his books (Nicholas Dane, I think?) was really disturbing and I can never say no to that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have Doing It (not Losing It - I always get these two confused) and some book about a girl who turns into a dog that I really need to get around to reading. Kill All Enemies was ok, but I had a few issues with it.

      A big fat YES to disturbing :)

      Delete
  4. Yay! I'm so glad that you'll be reading more UK YA! I love books by British authors, there's some really great stuff out there :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm going to be sticking to UKYA for the next few reads, definitely :)

      Delete