More Literary Confessions
I love to read up on what "the kids" are reading. Not just little kid stuff... Go Dog Go, fascinating as it is, doesn't hold my interest when there isn't a little dude on my lap pointing at the pictures. I wouldn't read books like that without Eric. In general I love adolescent literature. Everybody these days, regardless of the decade of their birth, reads Harry Potter.
After 9/11 Maureen Dowd wrote a column about the how the Lemony Snickett books were outselling Harry Potter. I was curious so five years later I found 1-10 of the "Series of Unfortunate Events" on Ebay and I've been reading them. And frankly,
I don't get it.
When I was a kid I LOVED orphan stories. Couldn't get enough of them. I also loved series books where the KIDS GOT OLDER in each book. But the set-up of each SUE book is exactly the same. The children go to some new place that may or may not be horrible and their arch nemesis Count Olaf comes in disguise and spoils it or makes it worse. But each book takes place over a period of about three weeks, so the children never change or get older.
I hate to say this about any book, but the movie was better. What is the appeal of these books? Three children live in a miserable staus quo, in a world where kind adults have no power to help them.
I love to read up on what "the kids" are reading. Not just little kid stuff... Go Dog Go, fascinating as it is, doesn't hold my interest when there isn't a little dude on my lap pointing at the pictures. I wouldn't read books like that without Eric. In general I love adolescent literature. Everybody these days, regardless of the decade of their birth, reads Harry Potter.
After 9/11 Maureen Dowd wrote a column about the how the Lemony Snickett books were outselling Harry Potter. I was curious so five years later I found 1-10 of the "Series of Unfortunate Events" on Ebay and I've been reading them. And frankly,
I don't get it.
When I was a kid I LOVED orphan stories. Couldn't get enough of them. I also loved series books where the KIDS GOT OLDER in each book. But the set-up of each SUE book is exactly the same. The children go to some new place that may or may not be horrible and their arch nemesis Count Olaf comes in disguise and spoils it or makes it worse. But each book takes place over a period of about three weeks, so the children never change or get older.
I hate to say this about any book, but the movie was better. What is the appeal of these books? Three children live in a miserable staus quo, in a world where kind adults have no power to help them.
posted by Margaret at 9:50 AM
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