Musing Mondays is sponsored by Should Be Reading and asks you to muse about one of the following each week…• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!
I just started reading Sky Jumpers by Peggy Eddleman. This is a YA book I received from Amazon Vine. It is a post-apocalyptic adventure. That seems to be the popular theme in YA today. The main character is a twelve year old female. As I read I started to think about the kind of books I read at twelve. They were mostly Science Fiction and featured the human race look outward facing the challenges in space. There were families living in space, home built rockets going to the moon, and stories featuring the race to make it to the stars. I only remember reading one story that was post-apocalyptic and that was Star Man's Son by Andre Norton.
I don't see many YA stories that feature us meeting challenges in space. Instead the stories look inward and the challenges are all on a earth we have put on the brink of ruin.
When did we change? I remember when we went to the moon I thought I might be able to go to space in my lifetime. There are some private companies working to get us there and I hope they succeed. I won't be going but I hope we start looking to the future with hope not despair.
One plus in stories today: when I was reading all the stories featured male characters with very few females. That has changed. Many feature female main characters. I like that change.
Interesting comments. I never was much of a sci-fi fan, but post apocalypse does seem to have taken over this genre.
ReplyDeleteHope you'll visit me today at http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2013/11/musing-mondays-november-3rd.html
Ooh, sounds like an interesting one :)
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I've never been a sci-fi fan but love your comments on how this genre has changed focus over the years. Here is my MM
ReplyDeletehttp://cleopatralovesbooks.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/musing-mondays-november-4/
I don't read science fiction or dystopian fiction, but I do read the reviews and I've also noticed the emphasis on strong female characters in these genres--which is a good thing all the way round!
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that a lot of YA now contains a female as the main lead. In fact, I'm surprised when the main character turns out to be a guy. I've noticed a large increase in supernatural and dystopian books coming into the library as well. Not sure when it all changed, but I'm a huge fan of dystopian fiction so for now I don't mind =D
ReplyDeleteYour observations are very interesting. Here's my musing http://daystarz.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/musing-mondays-14/
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