It's not growing up so much as sidestepping. The space that YA now fills used to be a part of the adult section. It's just that Potter showed how much money you could make explicitly marketing to teens. Since most American adults read at around the 6th grade level the normal level of complexity doesn't change across age groups. All you are changing is the trope set.

Between the issues with the sex scene and the general dislike of the ending, you might not be a Stephen King fan, but also I wouldn't write him off.

If you want to try some more King give the classic stuff a go, Carrie, Christine, Salem's Lot, that sort of stuff. Early King.

I liked Fairy Tale, but in my overall ranking I'm not sure it would land so high. I feel like in the last decade I'm just enjoying but not loving his stuff, which is also okay! But if you want to pick up a banger of more recent period King you gotta read 11/22/63.

I liked the first half more. The secondary world just wasn’t interesting.

There are some pretty gnarly fairy tales out there, not anything like their popular Disney ‘happily ever after’ adaptions.

It's a skill. It gets better with time.

I want gay magical beings with three collective brain cells and an unshakable desire to overcome. I dunno man I'm sorry guys

I guess I gotta grow up and check out some adult novels then.

I don't think the word like woke is what I want to use. It's more about the YA shift from I guess metaphorically and symbolically and literally marginalized oppressed groups in a unfair fantasy or magical or futuristic world to defeat an unjust system or a greater evil . To literally being in this world and facing the oppression from your more realistic peers and looking inwards and self reflecting. And in a lot of these books the complexities of their oppression isn't like necessarily solvable or something to fight against it's more like a fact or a inner growth thing. It's given more cut and dry I guess? I dunno if not making sense anymore. I need a second to rethink haha

I see more people disliking this book rather than liking it. Me included. The book was a bore. A very long bore.

I really enjoyed the first part of the book but then the 2nd part i couldn't even finish it so I didn't. Hugely disappointed and I love most of King's work.

I enjoyed it mainly because I saw a lot of myself in Holden and I read it for the first time around 18-19 which is how old he is in the book. I haven’t read any of Salinger’s others but have always wanted to. It’s not the best book I’ve ever read but it just feels like something of the same character attributes that everyone should read to help form their opinion/perspective on the general areas of life, etc. I would put it at 9 or 10 on my top 10 list.

There still is on the adult side. The problem is that the YA side is more geared to simple and blunt. If you are willing to read older books most of epic and adventure fantasy used to be about the teen from nowhere that saved the world.

Try The Vorkosaigan Saga. Start with Warrior's Apprentice. Here we meet a guy as he washes out of the military academy due to breaking both legs during the entrance test. Then he takes over a mercenary company with nothing but wits and 4 helpers.

I usually only remember half the book during my first listen. I retain more during the second go

I suppose my main gripe is just the tedium of volume 3. Brontë gets a bit too self indulgent (well more than she usually does) in dragging points out which slowed down my reading a lot.

It was very interesting to see her attempt a kind of Victorian version of a Homeric simile when she compares finding the ruined Thornfield to a suitor finding his lover lying dead in a garden. But it lost its power simply because it was so drawn out and wordy. I feel like this is probably an issue with Victorian literature in general though and I’ve been kinda spoiled after reading Homer and Virgil for so long. The Odyssey is about the same length (if a little shorter) and yet covers so much more and the characterisation so much more impactful simply because Homer (and the translator) managed to be economical

So YA books are too “soft” but you also don’t want to encounter adult content? I’d be cautious about blaming everything on “woke” culture, you can still pick up books written over 100 years ago so you’re hardly limited to modern authors.

You sound pretty young so I get wanting to read books with young characters, maybe try Robin Hobb’s books? They (mostly) feature adolescent protagonists and are pretty accessible for a younger audience while still being somewhat mature-themed.

I usually drift towards film soundtracks and I go towards films of what I'm reading.

Like recently went and read The Right Stuff and Neil Armstrong's biography so I was listening to the soundtracks for the TV show of For All Mankind, then the movies First Man, The Right Stuff, Interstellar, etc. etc.

If it's a book that has a movie, like The Cabin at the End of the World/Knock at the Cabin, I'll listen to that score while reading.

Big big fan of some music in the background as I read.

Same here (I am 51). I read in English and German, translations make it even harder to keep track of what you have read so far.

I mainly use Goodreads and will keep doing so, because of my goodread friends. Reviews become more valuable when you know the reader and his taste in books.

I dabble in Storygraph, Librarything and Excel, not sure which one I want to use in future for some reading data.

Yep. My mind starts wandering and if I am in a bed, I will fall asleep immediately.

Avoid Capital by Piketty is my advice then.

But seriously, I zone out too and wonder what I listened to and lose track of details now and then. And then I find it's hard to backtrack to where I lost it, whereas flipping pages and scanning to reorient myself in the story is easy--but I'm old and grew up with dead-tree books.

It might be the reader. Don't give up. Go to the library and check out a few more with different authors and readers to see it's the medium or the messenger.

You didn't finish the second sentence.

Hope you enjoy, it’s one of my fave series of all time and I don’t even really like teenage MCs

Edit: I should probably mention it’s not classified YA despite having a young MC & there are some trigger warnings too re: rape & suicide, just so you know.

Same "problem" and I gave up. Can't do the interview/talking podcasts either but enjoy a lot of theatrical ones and can do the investigative/documentary-ish ones. Can't do cliff notes of books either like blinkist. I think it's just your learning/info retention style.

Somethings else I guess to consider is the cultural mindset of today. I'm looking for big open worlds and plucky characters in a time where we are still in a very real pandemic and the escapism desired is real life stuff. Dealing and reading and connecting with more real scenarios. Or also the influx of fluff being the overall desire for the simpler things. I'm very open to seeing this differently. it also makes sense that the last like 15 years has been a market filled with fantasy and other worldly subjects and now it's time for a change as culture shifts and times get different

Ohh that might be tough to find. I was given my parents copy as a teen so I'm pretty sure it was one of the 1936 prints but about 5 yrs ago when I went looking for the ebook that version didn't seem to exist.

I'll definitely check it out it looks super interesting!