This past Christmas, I received one of these –> 

I’d resisted reading digital books for a long, long time… I just couldn’t see myself giving up paper books in favor of digital copies. I love my books! I love seeing them and holding them and smelling them and organizing them, and…

…but then I realized that I wouldn’t have to give up paper books.

Rather, I could just read more books with an eReader. So many new and exciting options would open up! Small press publications! Journals! Free classics! E-Galleys! Library books that I don’t have to physically return (I’m notorious for racking up library fines)!!!

So now I’m actually collecting more books: Ones that I don’t know if I want to purchase but still really want to read (I <3 you NetGalley), or ones that I might not have otherwise picked up if it wasn’t free to download (Kobo.com has a great selection of free books!).

And honestly? I think my first-quarter purchases of physical books in 2011 still surpassed the previous few years.

It seems to me that medium isn’t as important as the message. It’s just a matter of preferred delivery—which for me, changes according to what I want to read.

How about you? Gone digital, or are you still holding out?

Delirium

by Lauren Oliver

YA Dystopian

Release Date: February 2011

This was my first Lauren Oliver read, and I started the book with fairly high expectations. I’d heard that Lauren Oliver’s books were compelling, vivid, and very emotional stories that drew the reader in and gripped them until the end.

In this case? Mostly true. My main issue with this novel was the premise: The United States has decided that love is a disease, and youth undergo a procedure at eighteen to "cure" them of the possibility of ever catching the disease. Marriages are matched by algorithm, and anyone showing signs of the disease is captured and forced to undergo treatment again and again (mind you, this element plays a major role in the plot, so I don’t want to say much more).

Now, while this is an interesting approach to building a dystopian society, I simply had trouble with the plausibility of it all. We don’t really learn why and how the United States decided that love was a disease, and I find that if I don’t have a clear explanation of how a dystopian society becomes dystopian, I stop caring. If it can’t be explained to me, there’s no logical reason for what’s happening, and I get frustrated.

Beyond that, the issue of eliminating love is so much more complicated than the way it’s presented here. Oliver touches on the inevitability of certain mothers being unable to "bond" with their children and thus needing to be removed from them… or some people committing suicide because of the apathy they develop… but I honestly think she downplayed this aspect. I know it’s for the sake of the story, but if mothers didn’t love their children, or teachers didn’t love the kids they taught, or if no one loved their job, the world would become a very dysfunctional place very quickly.

So for me, the premise was flawed and I didn’t buy it.

However… the actual writing, and the story, and the characters? Beautiful. Oliver has this incredible ability to write so smoothly that you’ll be halfway through the book before you’ve taken a second breath. Her style is clear and to the point, not flowery or melodramatic, allowing you to be drawn in without even realizing it. Honestly, even with all the flaws I mentioned above, I will be reading the second book, if only for the author’s ability to create characters that you really want to cheer for, and for her ability to make the words simply flow across the page like water.

About the Author

Lauren Oliver is the author of Before I Fall, which ALA Booklist called a "compelling book with a powerful message [that] should not be missed." A graduate of the University of Chicago and the MFA program at New York University, Lauren is now a full-time writer and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Delirium is her second novel.

Have you ever dressed up as your main character in order to find inspiration for a scene?

I’m not being crazy, really. People do this! (…not that I know from personal experience or anything…)

I don’t know if they did it this year, but a few years back during NaNoWriMo, a group of participants declared November 1st ‘Dress Like Your Character Day’. It was meant to inspire you to start writing and get into the groove of your story.

I was writing a MG fantasy novel that year, set in Ir eland, with plenty of nasty fae. And they had some great cheap faery costumes at Value Village on markdown because the day before was Halloween.

(…I’m just sayin’…)

ANYWAY. Before you get all “but MY character has GREEN SKIN and lives on the MOON and doesn’t eat CHEESE so there’s NO WAY I could dress like him/her/it for a day!”, let me gently remind you that you are a writer and can use your imagination to get around these potential pitfalls. Srsly.

But really, have you ever considered it?

As weird as the concept might be, think of the last time you were writing a scene and got stuck. Maybe your main character wanted to do something completely different from what YOU wanted her to do. Maybe you had no idea what she would do. Maybe she decided she didn’t like your plot and stopped talking to you.

Why not step into her shoes to understand why?

Or better yet, try it during the character development phase. Set aside a few hours one afternoon, dress up like your character, and create a scenario. React how she/he would react, and when you’re done, record the differences or revelations you had during the process.

And if you want to make it really crazy and fun?

Get your whole writing group or critique group involved. Who said a character costume party is ridiculous? NO ONE, that’s who. (But if they did, you have my permission to give them the stink eye and send them cryptic Facebook messages until they go crazy with confusion and cave to the ultimate fact that you are, indeed, a literary genius and this is simply part of your METHOD and the kind of thing that completely sane people would do. Maybe. I think.)

Sooooo… anyone tried this before? Or am I just being completely loony here? (Which IS entirely possible, but I *do* have the group of people from several NaNos ago to back me up… really… they exist, I swear…!)

“If you love SF and fantasy, if reading it formed your teen years, if you do remember the magic you used to do, if you remember the absolute joy of first discovering those books, then read this.” —Robin Hobb, New York Times bestselling author of Assassin’s Apprentice

Among Others

by Jo Walton

Fantasy

Release Date: January 2011

If you’re a book lover, you want to read this book.

If you’re a reader of older fantasy & sci-fi, you definitely want to read this book.

If you’ve ever felt like you live life on the outside looking in because of your love for spec fiction, you need to read this book.

Here’s the synopsis from the book’s press release:

Startling, unusual, and yet irresistibly readable, Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and SF, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment.

Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom and promise in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. Then her mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, and Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled–and her twin sister dead.

Fleeing to her father whom she barely knew, Mori was sent to boarding school in England–a place all but devoid of true magic. There, outcast and alone, she tempted fate by doing magic herself, in an attempt to find a circle of like-minded friends. But her magic also drew the attention of her mother, bringing about a reckoning that could no longer be put off…

And my thoughts?

I started the book with a bit of hesitation, as I wasn’t sure what it would be like, but the endorsements on the cover from Robin Hobb and Patrick Rothfuss inspired confidence.

The story is unusual, at times startling, and yet absolutely irresistable—you’ll try to put the book down, only to be drawn back in again. The wonder and excitement that fills Morwenna as she discovers new authors and discusses them with her reading group is infectious, reminding you (the reader) of the moments when you read these authors for the first time.

The sense of ‘otherness’, the ‘outsider’ view that comes from being a voracious reader comes through loud and clear in the narrative, and for me, I found the actual plot of the story secondary to what was happening with Morwenna’s reading. Mind you, the plot itself is just as compelling, and it keeps the reader guessing—right up until the end—whether Morwenna is a little bit crazy, or if this ‘magic’ she speaks of as something true is a real thing.

I don’t know how she did it, but honestly, this book felt like a masterpiece—a love letter to speculative fiction, echoing sentiments that I’m sure we’ve all felt at one time or another.

Here’s one of my favorite quotations… maybe you can relate, just a tiny bit :

“What I mean is, when I look at other people, other girls in school, and see what they like and what they’re happy with and what they want, I don’t feel as if I’m part of their species. And sometimes—sometimes I don’t care. I care about so few people really. Sometimes it feels as if it’s only books that make life worth living, like on Halloween when I wanted to be alive because I hadn’t finished Babel 17. I’m sure that isn’t normal.” (p.119)

Honestly? Buy the hardcover. It’s worth it.

About the Author

Jo Walton won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer on publication of her debut novel The King’s Peace. Her novel Tooth and Claw won the World Fantasy Award, and Farthing is a finalist for the 2006 Nebula Award. In addition to writing SF and fantasy, she has also designed role-playing games and published poetry. Her song "The Lurkers Support Me In Email" has been quoted innumerable times in online discussions all over the world, frequently without attribution. A native of Wales, she lives in Montreal.

Today is the first day of the A-Z Challenge, which runs for the month of April. The challenge was started by Lee over at Tossing It Out, and apparently this is only the second year running the challenge… but you wouldn’t necessarily know it, because there are over 800 bloggers (last I checked) participating this year!

Yikes.

Now, I planned out about half the month’s posts (but of course haven’t had even half a second to write them yet) in hopes that I’ll actually make it through the challenge in one piece. One letter every day, excluding Sundays.

I had originally planned to post a book review for the AMAZING book ‘Among Others’ by Jo Walton, but I think I’ll have to save that for tomorrow and fudge it as ‘B’ for “book review”. Heh. How original.

As for today, ‘A’ is for “almost there”.

Here’s how many things are “almost there” for me, and yes, you’re allowed to leave now and come back tomorrow as this is a somewhat self-indulgent post that updates my life. And provides (not entirely) witty meta-commentary along the way. HAH.

Almost There:

• Teaching the English Comp class; just two more classes to go and it’s DONE (aside from marking their final papers).
• Setting up the critique group… I need to send my OWN info to the others and set up meeting #1.
• The WIP I’ve been planning to edit for the past 3 months… and will have the time for as soon as I’m finished teaching the Comp class.
• This session of dance classes; the recital is in just a few weeks and then the crazy multiple late-nights in a row will be DONE.
• The next session of dance classes is almost here… for which I need to choreograph 2 brand new pieces… OH, CRAP.
• Spring!!! It’s almost there… just a bit more snow to melt…
• My sanity… well, that’s more like ‘barely there’, but I’m hanging on.
• Time to do things like: Comment on your blogs (I miss you guys!), post on Librarything.com (I miss them, too), go outside, read…

And in the meantime, my cooking skills are “almost there” (I’ve just changed diets entirely, and I may add a writing-related post about this sometime… yes, that’s right, a food-related writing post… I’ll make it relevant, I swear), and my brother is going to England for a few months (*sad* …happy for him, but still *sad*) very soon, so he’s “almost there”.

No, I’m not whining (honest!) but it’s interesting how life sometimes brings a whole lot of “almost theres” at once. Like the universe can’t be bothered to spread things out a bit. Thanks a lot, UNIVERSE. Pffft.

But that also means there’s a lot to look forward to. I’ve had a great experience with teaching this semester, but it consumed my life a lot more than I’d expected it to. Along with teaching dance 3 additional nights a week, there wasn’t a whole lot of time to write… but in a few more weeks, that changes.

So, we’ll see what life throws at me next. At least there’s never a dull moment!

Anyone else have some “almosts” this Spring season?

What’s changing or about to change for you as the season flips over?