I am an avid reader. While I’m not quite at the number of books I was this time last summer, I am still well over 30. Why that number is so ridiculously high is because I still can’t seem to shake one of my major guilty pleasures: young adult literature. I may be 20, but I can’t help but love all the cheesy high school romance novels that flood my bookshelves. They don’t take long to read, and they are surely entertaining. Then again, this love may extend more simply because I cannot find any books geared toward my level.
When you go to a bookstore, there is either the young adult section or simply the fiction section. So where do awkward ‘young adult/adult’ hybrids like my 20 year old self find their literature? I have spent hours in the fiction department, but it is difficult to find books that are geared toward college students/fresh out of college adults. While some books I can read regardless of the age of the protagonist, it often can be hard to relate if the age difference is significantly different.
I recently finished ‘Girls In White Dresses‘ by Jennifer Close, which was an attempt at a happy medium between early 20s and adulthood. Nonetheless, it still didn’t satisfy me. The book itself was written as short vignettes about characters close to one another. The story centered around a group of college friends who were experiencing life after graduation.
Personally I found it difficult to follow the numerous names that the author threw out. Each chapter, aside from a few that followed one character Isabella, seemed to introduce another person, forgetting many of the previous ones. The description on the back of the book lists three women as the stories protagonists, yet one of them is barely mentioned through at least two thirds of the book.
Plus, the book progressed quickly from year to year, making it hard to follow the trajectory of each character since they were mentioned so infrequently.
What I’m getting at is that this book was not what I hoped it would be: the perfect transition novel. It’s back to the drawing board… in this case, the fiction section of Barnes & Noble.
Lovelies, how do you find books geared toward your age group? Do you feel like it’s harder to find books for young adults (early 20s)?
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guest
It depends on the genre in which you’re interested. If you’re into cheesy high school romance novels, then *surprise surprise* you’re probably going to have a tough time finding some at a more “adult” level. It’s like asking why there aren’t enough adult-oriented pop-up books.
…forget I said that.
guest
I have no idea…
In my early 20′s I was reading books like “How To Be A Superhero”, “The Dark Knight Returns” and “The Life of Groo The Wanderer”. Even now, in my 30′s, I take them out and read them every once in a while.
@QuantumStorm@xanga - Well… there are adult-oriented pop-up books, though I doubt many people categorize them as “literature”.
guest
I have the same problem! I want so badly to read books about adults, but that have the same flowing, interesting characters as young adult novels. Sigh. But novels for women older than teenagers but not quite older mature women, are so tacky!!!! I hate the cheesy romance, I hate the boring same old “single girl meets distressing boy, gets married after all”. bah. I want heartwrenching, keep me up at night reading, can’t put it down, amazing stories, about girls post-college but not quite married!
guest
I am a picky reader, it is hard for me to find books that I will stick with.
guest
I read classic literature so I’m perfectly fine
guest
This is such a stupid post.
sunflower / 255 posts
I didn’t think this was a problem. Read D.H. Lawrence, it’ll do you a world of good.
sunflower / 255 posts
Also don’t college students favor the mix of Haruki Murakami, “On the Road,” and Karl Marx? ;P
guest
I hear ya! But I love them :3 I just finished Summer In The City. I also read Something Borrowed, Something Blue, & Baby Proof and Love The One Your With Absolutely loooved it! Next is 13 Little Blue Envelopes and Improper English. I’m obsessed with books about traveling, especially to England <3
guest
I think many of the classics would fill your requirements. If you haven’t read them, “Little Women,” most Jane Austin novels. If you’re at Barns and Noble, the people at the desk can be helpful, or usually there is a shelf with “Barnes and Noble Classics” on it. Have you read “The Catcher In The Rye”?
orchid / 248 posts
@aheartofglitter@xanga - 13 Little Blue Envelopes was a brilliant book!
I use FantasticFiction and GoodReads to find books
guest
i’m not big on popular fiction… it feels too dumbed down for me. i stick to classics.
guest
You’re not alone either! I have the same problem. Back when I was a teenager I loved young adult books (real life fiction, science fiction, mystery, etc.) but now I want something with a little more substance, yet most of the books geared towards my age bracket (early twenties) are about getting married and all of that nonsense….If you find any good books or authors I’d love to read updates!
guest
I agree about the Classics
They should Satisfy and more.
sunflower / 416 posts
@kestrylshade@xanga - How is this a stupid post? A lot of young people can relate to this. If you’re going to say that something is stupid, then explain why it is stupid. I’m confused as to how you think this post isn’t beneficial whatsoever to those of us who are looking to find more adult books that suit our tastes.
guest
I think you’re too stuck on wanting young adult themes. There seems to be a jump inbetween young adult and “adult” in terms of themes and genres. Have you tried authors like Jodi Picoult? You probably have but she’s a good author – similar themes to Sarah Dessen’s novels, but a bit deeper and more mature. Similarly if you like crime or mystery, try Tess Gerritsen, or the Alex Cross novels by James Patterson.
I get it’s hard though – I’m currently on a Science FIction kick though – Game of Thrones, Hitchikers Guide and anything by Ray Bradbury
don’t be afraid to expand your horizons, you might find a new genre you fall in love with.
daffodil / 1525 posts
ALL BOOKS BY CHAD KULTGEN. I recommend nothing more highly -ever-.
guest
I recommend any and all books written by Kristin Hannah. I have had the same problem, but I most recently picked up two of her books and couldn’t put them down!
guest
I started reading early and read a good deal of my adult books (Earth’s Children Series for instance) while still in grade school. Now I’m doing a combination of classics, poetry and sci-fi / fantasy by my favorite authors or those that came highly recommended from friends. I’ve found well written horror novels are amazing. I also have several friends, fb and offline, that are avid readers so I constantly ask them for book suggestions. Constantly… the best recommendations come from people approximately five years older than me. My husband has decent taste in books as well so I snag a good deal of his when he’s done reading them.
I would suggest a genre switch, honestly. I read pretty much everything so I’m always switching genres or have several books from different genres on my reading table. It helps negate a lot of the age-related fiction simply because different genres aim for different things.
guest
i have the same issue. im 26 and stuck in the teen section. however, try hey nostradamus, by douglas coupland. its fantastic.
guest
I think what you are looking for is actually covered a lot more in the personal memoir/essay genre that has been popular for about the past five years. Chuck Klosterman, Elna Baker, Nick Flynn, Donald Miller and Walter Kirn’s Lost in Meritocracy all come to mind. I think you would especially like Elna Baker.
orchid / 159 posts
Try reading books that go along your interest lines without respect to the age of the characters. I loved the Dexter series, all of Kathy Reich’s “bones” series, Ender’s Game (and the Shadow quartet), the Historian, etc.
tulip / 16 posts
My advice is to checkout goodreads.com.
It’s a website that helps you build your virtual bookshelf (the collection of books you have read) and suggests similar books that perk your interest.
This website has opened so many doors for me to find new authors!
guest
I’m 21 and I love young adult books. =X
cherry blossom / 35 posts
@whyzat@xanga - I do read a lot of classics, being that I am an English major. While I do appreciate them for their literary value (I did love the Catcher in the Rye) sometimes I want something a little less dense when I’m reading for pleasure rather than for class. Thanks for the suggestion though!
cherry blossom / 35 posts
@daydreams_nightmares@xanga - I do love Jodi Picoult! The issue is, I’ve read all of her books and now I’m stuck searching again! Thanks for your suggestions though, I definitely will be checking a few of those out
guest
Two reasons.
The first is the same reason it is for everything. Money. You are talking about a pool of potential clients that are 1) money strapped (college students don’t have free entertainment dollars) and 2) does not respond positively to nearly any attempt at targeting it as a demographic… in fact, they will rebel against things specifically targeted to that demographic. So yes, you can blame poor college students and hipsters for your lack of reads. There’s no profit in publishing books like these, and your personal taste is sadly not part of a larger trend.
The second is a more complex problem of authorship. You’re talking about a time period where people are very attuned to their environment, very educated, yet still faced with a unique set of personal challenges. It is rather easy to write “young adult” books targeting the adolescents, partially because you can coach everything in such vague terms that they’ll create fictitious relationships to their characters in their own heads. I write a strong-willed princess, and an impoverished shy girl sees someone she wants to emulate, and the rich loudmouthed cheerleader sees a better version of herself. You don’t need to create good characters, merely strong ones. The same thing goes for plotlines. In a young adult novel, something that has been done a thousand times seems brand new, because the audience of teenagers is encountering that plot for the first time. Their tolerance is also very high for repetition.
As we move past the teenager-targeted section, those two non-issues quickly become BIG problems. Plotlines that were eaten up by the teenage audience are now “been there, seen that” issues. Readers are now sophisticated enough, and self-assured enough, to stop finding something relateable in all characters, and look for much more specific reasons to like or dislike a character. All of this makes authoring a targeted novel much more difficult…
Anyways, I’ll stop before this becomes unreadably long. As far as the work you’ve mentioned, I haven’t read it, but it sounds like somebody took a set of short stories and tried to smush them into a novel. That’s like going into your fridge and trying to extract the egg from the omelette, the flour from the cookies, the sugar from the pudding, and then mixing them all together to make a cake.
guest
Maybe someday authors will realize that our age group is a marketable one. But, until then, I shall stick to 1970′s harlequins from the thrift store.