I need a grown-up edition of YA books!

I mentioned last post that I'm busy working my way through a huge pile of Young Adult books. Hey, what can I say? I guess I never grew up.

Seriously, though, I don't know why people discount YA fiction. A lot of it is really inventive and well done. Some, of course, is shlocky and worthless, but since most YA fiction tends to be short, at least you haven't invested too much time in a loser. YA fiction isn't "dumbed down" at all, at least not when it's well done. It deals with all the same themes and topics as you'll find in regular adult literature. Mostly all it's missing is gratuitous sex. Oh, there's still sex in some YA books, it just tends to be less gratuitous than in some novels aimed at adults. But don't worry, all's not lost: there still tends to be plenty of gratuitous violence in YA fiction!

But here's my problem. I'm a quick reader. I'm not saying that to "brag"...ooo, I know you're all super impressed with my speed reading superpower, I say sarcastically. It's just a fact. But with a YA book, with their huge typeface and gigantic margins, it gets a bit ridiculous. I have to turn the page like every 30 seconds it feels like. It's distracting.

So here's my suggestion: you know how some books that were originally written for an adult audience are re-released as a YA book? Generally the only changes are cosmetic: a new cover, a larger type size, and big margins. Well, I wish they'd do the same thing in reverse. Take a book originally released as YA and repackage it for adults: Get some less embarrassing cover art, and shrink those margins and type. Oh, and if they feel like it, maybe they could add some gratuitous sex. Because I just read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and you know what, a little sex would have perked that book up during the kind of slow middle of the book.

Random related thought: I just listened to Eragon by Christopher Paolini on CD. I'm really excited the third book in The Inheritance series is coming out soon...this is a fun series. However, it was a bit rough to listen to on CD. First, the reader was okay, but lets face it, he was no Jim Dale (the awesome reader of the Harry Potter series). Most distrubing however, was that hearing it aloud kind of brought some of the weaknesses of the prose to the forefront. As I said earlier, I'm a fast reader and as a result, I can easily overlook weak phrasing while I'm reading, as long as it isn't glaring. I'm moved by STORY, not WORDS in general. I appreciate brilliant writing, but it's not a necessity for me to enjoy a book. But when you listen to a book, it's just far too obvious. And it was distracting when listening to Eragon. But I loved the story. I mean, it's highly derivative of the whole high fantasy genre, but who cares? It's still a great story, and if you haven't read a lot of high fantasy, you won't even notice.

While it's been annoying to wait so long between books in this series, I'm glad the author has given himself time to write. And I'm not particularly one to blame the weaknesses on his youth (good golly, he was only 15 when he wrote Eragon), but I hope that at the ripe old age of, oh, 25 or so, he's gained a maturity that will improve his writing. We'll see on September 20!

And while you're waiting, go pick up Eragon. The print version. Not the audio. Then come back and tell me what you thought. And if you've already read it, please do tell me your opinion. Anyone else anxiously awaiting Brisingr?

While you're busy commenting, what are your favorite YA books? Let me know!