Interesting tidbit about Dark Angel gleaned from wikipedia:

Published in 1982, The Darkangel featured a story that Pierce claims came to her all at once while she read the account of a dream recounted to Carl Jung,

Two summers ago I found books up in the stacks at the Strozer that were marked "Florida Girls College" and hadn't been checked out since 1920. I felt like swiping a few of them just to give them a change of scenery and because they really looked interesting.

BWAH!!!! Setting up the Old Books Home

John Jakes

Ooh, I'd forgotten all about John Jakes! I used to glom those, too. I was a sucker for historical sagas--Belva Plain, Alexandra Ripley, Celeste de Blasis.

I had an event over on main campus today which ended late enough I could reasonably say there was no point in going back to the hospital...so naturally I went to the library to get some research materials for the WIP. All of which I intend to return eventually, though I do love the long checkout periods and near-infinite renewals at a university library.

And I know I've mentioned this before, but is there anything in the world that smells as wonderful as the stacks of a university library, that old book scent?

And I know I've mentioned this before, but is there anything in the world that smells as wonderful as the stacks of a university library, that old book scent?

there are very few things, indeed.

I've been at work so much the past few days, I missed all the fun conversation!

Barb, I'm still not sure what you mean by authorial intrusion in Time Traveler's Wife -- are you referring to what you feel is her being pleased at her own cleverness?

I sort of handwaved what you thought of as her breaking the rules of her own universe, because I had a hard time figuring out how the time travel worked in the first place (so sue me -- Terminator boggled me for a while), so that didn't really bug. I loved it so much! I'm bummed you didn't.

I picked up Vampire Kisses on Jilli's rec rather than New Moon, but what cracks me up is a girl at work who's about twenty. Her friends were pestering her to read the books because they're dying to see the movie, so she read the first one (and agreed that the first, like, two-thirds of the book are incredibly boring), but went out and bought the second one anyway! She's laughing at herself, because she suddenly gets all the "Edward! Bella!" talk.

Fay, I just got Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely, too, and I'm dying to read Evernight. I still have Holly Black's Tithe to dig into, too. Yay good YA!

At fourteen I was gobbling up old books of my mom's mostly -- Phyllis Whitney and Stephen King and family sagas by Belva Plain. I discovered Anne Rivers Siddons shortly after that, Barb -- I must have read Fox's Earth a hundred times. I read some YA in there, too, but I had read a lot of that (like Lisa, Bright and Dark and I Never Promised You a Rose Garden) in fifth and sixth grade.

Yeah, Amy, the sounding clever with herself really seemed to come through and bug me.

And the time travel mechanics and her rules for it drove me batshit, but then again, I'm Virgo Girl, hear me analyze. *g*

By the by, you did know that Wicked Lovely won the YA RITA, right?

I think I saw you mention it, but I feel like I've been skimming *everything* for days. I swear, I would kill for a job where I could at least have the Internets at *lunchtime*, you know?

I honestly don't know what I was reading at 14. I was still probably plowing through my parents' bookshelves (I remember reading Joan Baez's bio at 15, so who knows!) The Jane Eyre marathons were early in high school.

I read a lot that was likely considered inappropriate for my age. And honestly, there's some stuff *I* think I should have left for later. There weren't any restrictions. So it meant Judy Blume and Theodore Sturgeon and polar explorers and mountaineers and hippydippy and lots and lots of scifi and childhood development, of all things. Oh, I do know I went on a Steinbeck kick (because my grandmother sent all my dad's old copies) also when I was 15. The big name ones didn't get me. To a God Unknown mesmerized me. Hrm. I do have a vague recollection of checking out a lot of YA & YA scifi at the library, on my bike. Which would be 10-14, likely

Basically, if it has words and was within reach, I probably reached for it by 12.

Published in 1982, The Darkangel featured a story that Pierce claims came to her all at once while she read the account of a dream recounted to Carl Jung,

Yeah, it pretty much reads that way.

Erin, I would recommend not reading the final book of that trilogy. I'm not sure Meredith Ann Pierce can write trilogies. I tend to love the first book, think the second is okay, and end up going WTF? at the third.

Hmm. See, I think that if you've read the second, it's worth reading the third because those two books fit together. I don't know that I think there was really any need to write them in the first place, but structurally it's a bit like the PotC movies, in that the first is a stand-alone, but then the 2nd and 3rd are conceived afterwards as a middle and an end of a larger story.

What I liked about the third book was the fact that even though the heroine IS eventually appreciated by her prince, and hot sex is had, and apologies are made - she doesn't stay with him and live happily ever after. I was surprised and pleased that her relationship with her FRIEND, which is developed as being much more passionate and devoted throughout, is the one ends up being her Happyishly Ever After. Heaven knows it's not where I would have expected the story to go, and to some extent I think of the 2nd and 3rd books as interesting fanfic, whilst the original book is the REAL story. Um. Still, my fanfic-loving heart did rather rejoice that in the end it's pretty much a slash romance.

Notwithstanding that, I think my main reaction was more of a "...huh" than a "yay!"

I really have to re-read. My teenage heart was all "GUH!" at the prince -- god, what was his name? -- but I think my almost 36 yo heart (and brain, yo) might be think he was a bit more archetypey and less interesting than a more persony...uh, person.

Yeah, I'm an English teacher. I used up all my adjectives in Orientation and syllabi roughing.

God, I need some new quality stuff to read that will be at the used bookstore. (My lib card is maxed out -- dude, you KNOW you're an English teacher when your credit card balance is ok, but your library card is declined!)