Confessions of a Non-YA Reader

I’ve never really put my love of books into a genre bracket but I tend to feel that my education has steered me away from one genre in particular – the YA bracket. I completed my undergrad in English in 2012 and went a step further to complete a Masters in English Literature a year after that and I have to say, not a single book that was in reading list was from the YA bracket. Truth be told, though I was never directly told so, I was often given the impression that the books we were studying were ‘proper literature,’ or as one of my Professor’s would say,

“These are the kind of books that shape our literature.”

So I spent a majority of my early adult life believing that I read ‘real books,’ off handedly brushing away all things that wasn’t written by someone who had one some prize or another. In the meantime, my younger sister (who goes by @memsbreaksspines on Instagram – check her out!) began to get very serious about her books, ordering them by the dozen and trying to encourage me to read them with her too. My response?

“I’m okay, I’d rather spend my time reading some Junot Diaz, Mohsin Hamid, Kamila Shamsie or Elif Shafak. They’re real books, not the stuff that you read.”

Often enough, I would be nicely insulted and told to open up my eyes and to just give one of them a chance. Needless to say, I never did until I started working at a school teaching 11-16 year olds. Thankfully, they were the kind that would always have a book between their hands, so much so that at times I would catch them reading them under the table in the middle of the lesson. I kept seeing the same books in their hands – all YA pieces of literature.

After some time, my sister asked me to go along to a YA event with her, featuring @benjaminoftomes reviewing Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses, something I had spent the greater part of my teenage years devouring eagerly. On the same day, Bali Rai, James Dawson and Sally Green were there to talk about their books. I can’t remember which of the three it is at the time but one of the author’s was asked a question to which they replied,

“Real literature? What does that even mean?”

In retrospect, it was done with such grandeur that it must have been James Dawson, but at that moment my sister turned around and gave me a very meaningful look to reproach me because that was my response to every book recommendation she had ever thrust under my nose.

And so it began.

I was a changed woman.

I allowed Mems to give me a few books and grudgingly grabbed Veronica Roth’s Divergent Series, mainly because it had recently hit the cinemas and I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. I loved every minute of it, hanging on to every last word and being several annoyed at Tris the majority of the time too.

The weeks went on and I got busy with work again, watching the pile of marking stacking up. Perchance, one of my students had written a review of the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi, and I was extremely intrigued. I told my student that after returning her work and the next day, she came in with the entire series wrapped up so I could get cracking with it.

Today, after seeing the #UKYADAY hashtag on Twitter, I knew it was time to fess up and to admit just how wrong I was for literally judging a book by its cover and where it was placed in a book store. I now take more recommendations from my sister and my students, and love going to any YA event there is. I recently went to Gayle Foreman’s event at Foyle’s to publicise the release of her novel, I Was Here and not only did I enjoy it, but I joined Gayle and her friend to read a section of the novel out … best day ever!

So here’s to all the late nights of reading, to all the early mornings wishing you could be reading in bed instead of at work, to all the BookTubers, BookStagrammers, book bloggers and above all, to all the YA authors of the world, for changing lives one word at a time.

** I am pleased to report that I am currently devouring Jennifer Niven's All the Bright Places - thanks Mems!