Julia Slaughter

Posts Tagged ‘Neil Gaiman’

My "To Be Read" stack of books

I keep a stack of books “To Be Read” and despite the fact that you can see my list in the Now Reading  section of my website, I couldn’t resist snapping a quick picture of them.  I feel real anxiety if I don’t have at least one book in the stack, because what if I finish what I’m reading and the bookstores are inconviently closed? What would I do? (I know that sounds so silly!) I take at least three books with me if I go on vacation just in case between plane rides and hotel rooms I end up knocking out more than one. Yes it’s true, I am a book loving fool.

I am currently reading and LOVING, Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, I found it in the Children’s section of my local bookstore, that’s right not even the Young Adult section – the Children’s section (the age range on the book is 9 to 12). Shortly after I bought the book I noticed that another author I’ve been reading and I admire was pondering why her reading tendencies tend to lean towards the young adults book and it really got me thinking about why I read what I read.

I love to read, I am a devourer of books. My favorite books are the ones that grip you and don’t let go. George RR Martin has often kept me up until the wee small hours of the morning (quite a feat since I am a notorious early bird), Stephenie Meyer has caused me to sneak a book into the bathroom because my lunch ended before the chapter did, and there are countless others that I have read going down the stairs or at stop lights. My love of books goes beyond genres and crosses age barriers, if it’s good and I like it I’ll read it.

I think the appeal of books written for children and young adults is that since your audience has a wide and vast imagination, so as an artist you are free to tap into your own imagination. The ability to suspend disbelief is so much greater when we are younger, because it’s easy to believe that anything is still possible!

I’m reminded of an advertising class I took when I was in college, the professor told us of one of his advanced classes where he asked his students to draw a tiger, they were asked to draw either an imaginative one or a fantastical one – I’m unclear on the wording exactly. He showed us the results, the drawings were beautiful and elaborate but they were all black and white, or black and orange, tigers. He then showed us the results when a class of grade schoolers was asked to do the same thing and the results were spectacularly different. They drawings from the grade schoolers were multicolor, some even used glitters, there were tigers with wings, tigers being ridden like horses, tigers that reinvented what the word tiger means for most of us. My professor encouraged us to try to tap into that inner grade schooler and call up that kind of imagination.

I think Children’s books are fun to read because the author can out any inhibitions to their imagination aside. Neil Gaiman can’t sell every adult on the premise that a toddler, who has just become orphaned, being raised in a graveyard but a kid would pick it up and immediately accept and embrace that premise. They don’t worry about the legality or the logistics and if you let go of those things you lose yourself in an amazing world of fascinating characters. I truly can’t wait to see where this one takes me!

Likewise, I think I like young adult books because they tap into different kind of emotions, and they straddle the line between reality and fantasy rather effortlessly. They remind me of that first fierce flush of love and a time when the road stretched before me full of limitless possibilities. I love these stories too.

Of course I still read “adult” books from a wide variety of genres – George RR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire (because I can’t say that I read all fantasy), books about people from other times or other cultures but I like for them to be  told with color and texture that makes me feel like I’m there, experiencing with them. I’ve sampled a few historical fictions, sometimes they are a little dry for me, and I must confess that I’ve developed a new affinity for the classics as I’ve gotten older. I couldn’t stand them when I was younger, but I’ve since decided my big objection was mostly that I was being forced to read them; once I decided I wanted to check them out myself, they were marvelous.

I’m trying to think of an exercise to help me get in touch with my inner child, so I can harness some of the crazy imagination I had back then and put it to work! Hmm, this may require further explorations.

If you’re interested, this is the link to the “trailer” for The Graveyard Book, I encourage you to check it out!