A2A The Teen Years: Teen Readers Unite!

Tip of the Day: Christine Kane's blog provides practical encouragement for artists with goals. It's one of my "must reads." This post on motivation is why: http://christinekane.com/blog/momentum-mania-how-to-get-your-groove-back-in-7-simple-steps/.

I was a big reader as a teenager. I had a lot of extracurricular activities but that didn't stop me. I was the type of girl who brought books to work and football games in case I got a chance to read a page or two. I used to bring books when I hung out at friends' houses until someone took me aside and told me it was rude. (I'm still internally debating the merits of that etiquette tip.)

What did I read? My rule was I read pretty much everything that my mother didn't.

My mother reads a lot. She used to take me to the public library with her every two weeks. No matter how we were getting along, that was a trip I never turned down. When I was in high school, she was into gothic historical romances, books with ladies on high cliffs or possibly moors on the cover, the wind whipping about their Georgian dresses, Rebecca-like stares of panic frozen on their innocent white faces. (You can see I put a lot of thought into giving my mother a hard time about this.)

My friends and I were into Stephen King. I loved reading the same books my friends read, debating which Stephen King book was best, making stupid Pet Cemetary jokes and watching all the cheesy movies with them. SciFi reruns of Maximum Overdrive and Children of the Corn bring me back to high school faster than a time machine.

I read a lot of other books, thick ones so I could give my mother grief about her "negligent, vapid" reading choices. But then a funny thing happened. The thick books led to historical fiction, and then historical romance. By college, I was ransacking the house on my home visits for Mom's old Regency romances.

By then, she was bored with Gothic and had given the books away. She was into cosy mysteries. Cosy mysteries! Mom, you have GOT to be kidding me! Like Murder She Wrote? Ugh, I'm going to the library!

Mom moved onto more adventurous, suspenseful stuff while I moved onto sci fi and fantasy. But now I find myself craving adventure books. Sure, I wouldn't read Janet Evonovich when Mom was recommending her, but I'll try it now.

Well, guess what? She gave her Stephanie Plum books away. Now she likes paranormal romance. Way to jump on the bandwagon, Mom. Geez.

On the other hand, at this rate she should come around to Stephen King in a few years. I'll save a copy of Desperation for her, just in case.

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages