Literature & News

I am a librarian's daughter and I think it's somehow in my genes to love reading. Most people who come to my house comment on how many books I own. I'm pretty choosey about what I read though. I don't like violence, drugs, scandals, or generally sad things. I figure there's enough of that in real life, and books are my escape...why would I want to escape to a place that's just as bad or worse? I do like the occasional sad/tragic story, but it has to be beautiful and sad, or intriguing and sad. Like Pan's Labyrinth (not that that's a book), or ...well, I'm tired and can't think of another example right now. Anyway, I try to stay away from sad or weighty things, unless they're very very good. I'd say most of my books are fantasy and fairy tales, with a few classics, non-fiction, manga, and romance thrown in. I have a large collection of plays, but hardly ever read them. Some fav. series: Fablehaven, The Edge Chronicles, Princess Diaries, The Giver and it's sequels, Wicked Lovely, and some really old books by an author nobody's ever heard of but me, Myrtle Reed. I intentionally avoid best sellers, because I like to feel as if I "discovered" the book myself. On the flip side though, I feel compelled to read the real classics, simply because they ARE classics, even if I don't think I'll like them, it makes me feel more cultured or something. lol This is why I own Moby Dick but have never made it past the first chapter. I feel that a romance makes a book 10x more interesting, and if there isn't one at all I tend to think badly of the book as a whole. With a few exceptions, of course. If the man involved in the romance is a strong, noble, hero type, so much the better. But my need for romance does not cross over, somehow, to actual Romance novels, you know, the kind with a brawny guy on the cover with a woman clinging to his leg. No thank you. The only true romance novels I can stomach are Nora Roberts', which I love. I tend to stick to the young adult categories, because it seems like adult books are usually laden with violence, sex scenes that are not done nicely, drugs, etc. What is this about, anyway? Do adults not want to be happy? If it's just a fluff-type story do we feel like we're wasting our time? Seems no worse than sit-coms! This kind of falls into line with how I don't understand why people enjoy reading or watching the news. Why do you want to learn about all this terrible stuff going on? Most people don't hear about a fire in their town on the evening news and then drive over there to try to help the people out. So why do we use other peoples' misfortune as, essentially, entertainment? I seem to be in the minority with this view though, cuz when I tell people I don't watch the news or read newspapers they look at me like, "How do you LIVE without the news?!" lol But I feel I am much happier without knowing about the 20 car pile up on the highway, the house fire that killed 3, the bird flu that's going to kill us all, etc. As of yet I haven't missed anything that caused my life to end, so I am unconcerned.