YOUR HAIR LOOKS FREAKIN' COOL, DUDE!

I am not a geek* but I'm completely geeking out about Teen Read Week, which officially starts today!  While my YA novel, QUAD, doesn't completely fit the theme of this year's campaign (LOL), I'm still excited to be a part of this nation-wide campaign to bring the incredible world of reading to the young adult crowd. 

TRUE CONFESSION:  I was never a reader as a teen.  I truly believed that all literature was boring, that books had nothing to offer me, that there was no way literature could connect to my life on any level.  I even cheated on doing the required reading in high school (sorry, Mr. McHargue) although I was a good enough writer to fake it most of the time.  When I was a senior, my mom forced me to read Catcher In The Rye, which was not required reading back then.  I balked but I read it anyway, and secretly enjoyed it.  Who knew that a piece of "literature" would have the F word in it??  Now that sparked my interest. 

AND THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED that changed my life forever.  Without being told to, I read Alice Walker's The Color Purple from cover to cover.  It made me weep--I was hooked.  By the way, I met Alice Walker last weekend at NCIBA, and I was able to tell her that hers was the book that had made me a reader, and that now I'm a published author.  You just never know.

My dear friend Leigh Purtill and her husband Maurice are coming up from LA to join me for Teen Read Week.  We're gonna blitz the local high schools, hit the Barnes & Noble, and finish off at the public library.   If you're in the neighborhood, stop by: B&N Oct 18 from 5:00 - 6:30 and Butte Co. Library on Oct 19 from 3:30 - 4:30.   Leigh and I will talk a little bit about ourselves, do a reading or two from our books, Love, MEG and QUAD, and answer questions.  In the spirit of TRW, we're also gonna talk about our favorite books when we were teens. 

What is/was your favorite teen book???

*open for debate

Comments

[Mo]

I think for me it was Horror. The first book I ever read, without having to was "The Amityville Horror" but not my favorite... My teen favorite was a toss up between King's "The Stand" and Harris's "Red Dragon"

Mo

"The horror! ... The horror...!"
-Apocalypse Now-