Shiny new YA lit icon just for the occasion.

This is the first year I've started keeping any sort of written record of the books I've read. Normally I don't bother because even though I can't add or subtract, I am a walking book and author database. Handy skill to have when I'm doing reader's advisory.

Book year in review:

Total number of books read and completed: 101

Total number of books started but not finished, or still in progress: 7

Ten best books I read this year in no particular order:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

The Book of Fred by Abby Bardi

Under the Wolf, Under the Dog by Adam Rapp

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud


Not necessarily the best book I read this year, but definitely the most fun: Bling by Erica Kennedy

Five really overrated books I read this year:

Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Luna by Julie Anne Peters

Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo

Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich

Month in which I read the highest number of books: June (12)

Month in which I read the lowest number of books: November (5)

Book I'm probably never going to get around to reading even though it's been on my to-read list forever: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Percentage by which my teen circulation increased in 2004 over 2003: Statistics aren't final yet, but I think it's about 85%. In 2003, there was a 125% increase in circulation over 2002

Book this year that most pleasantly surprised me: Be More Chill by ned_vizzini. I wasn't so sure about this book when I started it, but it turned out to be excellent, very funny and witty and even kind of sexy.

Authors I met this year, or, people who've seen me blush and act like a moron: libba_bray, Edward Bloor, Carolyn Mackler, Joyce McDonald, Darren Shan, Art Spiegelman, Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, David Levithan, Paula Danziger, K.L. Going, Megan McCafferty, Ann Brashares, Jack Gantos, and my hero, Diana Tixier Herald. I swear, I could meet Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom and not blink, but I got in front of Neil Gaiman and forgot how to talk. Honorable mention: Blake Nelson, who wrote to me after seeing this journal and got a very long fangirly response from me and now he probably thinks I'm a little strange. But I am.

Saddest book-related moment of the year: hearing that Paula Danziger died

Happiest book-related moment of the year: getting fan mail from Sonya Sones, who loved the review I wrote for VOYA of One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies and hit up my editor for my email address so she could write to me

Number of times my husband shook his fist at me while we were moving my books into the new apartment: a lot

Number of copies of OotP I own: Five

My pick for the 2005 Printz Award, from the YA lit community's favorites that I've read to date: The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan. Honors: Under the Wolf, Under the Dog, Double Helix by Nancy Werlin, Bucking the Sarge

Best moment leading a book discussion: While reading Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind with a group of 7-9 graders this summer, one of the girls brought in a box of head scarves for all the female group participants to wear during the discussion.

Looking forward to in 2005: zeisgeist's new book, Book Expo in NYC, the next Fables compilation, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, _witchinghour_

Tags: 2004, books
126: literate
780: now this is the part where the rap breaks down

Censorship link of the day: Whale Talk challenged in Georgetown, South Carolina. Whale Talk is not a favorite of mine by any stretch of the imagination, but this is just insane. Maybe I'm just less selfish than most, but I don't think my beliefs should be put upon others if they don't want them.

On a bright note, librarians are loved at Johns Hopkins.

Although my apartment is still a mess and there are dirty dishes in my sink and clean laundry on my bed, I wrote 1,411 words of Morality for Beautiful Slytherins this weekend. I've started the exposition of Major Plot Point and worked a little ahead, writing some scenes that I'll fill in later. Ending: still nonexistent. But that's okay. I've still got a way to go. I have not felt this consumed by a fic since I wrote My Intended, My Ivory, My Station, My River, and it's damn good to have that feeling back. I don't want this to turn into Cedar Waxing Poetic About How Cool Writing Is, because Cedar is not a writer or even a trained reader and hasn't any license really to talk about writing, but there's no denying that it's a pretty good feeling to wake up and think, "I want to work on this fic," after you get done thinking, "I have to call the rental office again and get them to come in and fix these damn heaters because they rattle so loudly I can't sleep."

Today's care package: large bag of British teen novels, including the twelfth Darren Shan Vampire Saga book, the next Alex Rider book, which won't be out in the US until April, and a Garth Nix book I didn't ask for which was either a freebie or belongs to my very sweet British Teen Advisory Board member who sent his father to the bookstore with a list when said father went to England last month. I'd also like to take this moment to say that British covers are usually much more attractive/provocative/shiny than their American counterparts. This amuses me. America always seems to be so entranced with Teh Shiny, yet their books aren't as pretty as the UK versions. Oh, but I forgot. Americans who read are nerds.

Yes, I missed Fandom Wednesday last week. It will return this week. I think I even have a topic.

To do: annotations, attempt to get through another 50 pages of Inkheart, start Ruby Electric, get Marcy's oil changed, try on pants I bought on Saturday.

Random observation: It is now cool to like classic rock. Evidence: Mr. Cedar and I were at Hot Topic on Saturday, because he bought me a shirt for Hannukah and although I loved the shirt (it said "Muggle"), it didn't fit very well. While we were wading through every goth in north Jersey in a 100-degrees-Fahrenheit store trying to find something for which I could exchange the shirt and then standing in line to do the exchanges, I heard not one but two Rush songs. Two. Throw in a little Led Zeppelin and I might just have to bring out my closet goth side once in a while.

Tags: 2004, books, censorship, writing
126: accomplished
780: shut your mouth I just can't take it again and again and

Happy belated birthday to rilina!

Books:

I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the Interview with the Vampire tunnel. I'm more than halfway through disc 12 of 14 and plan to finish by Thursday. I can see why people like this book and I enjoy the narrator, but overall I'm not thrilled. It shouldn't be a Fun Game for Cedar to Play in the Car where I count the number of times the word "preternatural" appears on one disc. The record so far is six, on disc 9, I think. Some of the characters are interesting maybe a little, but I keep getting bogged down in all the description. And I just want to whack Louis. Shut up and quit whining. Armand is kind of sexy but I don't like control freaks...probably because I am one. I might read The Vampire Lestat, because I have it and it's sitting on my shelf at home (fret not, I bought it at a used book sale), but I won't bother with the rest of the series.

My growing collection of vampire erotica disturbs me. All of a sudden I realize I have at least five or six volumes of it, both novels and short-story collections. Maybe I have a future as a horror writer. After all, I'm on my third New Jersey landlord.

Did you hear about the bookshop in San Francisco that has all its books arranged by color this week? Now, I love LC and DDC as much as the next librarian, but there's a part of me that can't help but think that doing this in the library might be beneficial considering we have all those patrons that say, "Can you help me find this book? It was red and I think it was *pointing* over there."

From the "I am a junkie" files: On Saturday I picked up a copy of Lullaby new for $5 at the local Barnes and Noble, which made me insanely happy because I would have paid twice that through Baker and Taylor. Hooray for publishers printing too many copies. I never should've gone to the bookstore, though, because the next day at work I ordered three more books through Baker and Taylor.

"I can justify these purchases," I thought. "There are waiting lists for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and I am Charlotte Simmons, and both are so long that I'll never be able to finish them in three weeks, especially since I have that long list of assigned books for the Garden State Teen Book Awards. I get those at a pretty steep discount because they're bestsellers, so it's okay to spend the money."

Except that today, I know I ordered Jonathan Strange... and Book Lust, but I can't remember the third book I bought. I know it wasn't I am Charlotte Simmons. I have book amnesia. Ack.

Last night I read Fault Line by Janet Tashjian and thought it was really well done. Becky is a high-school senior and a wannabe standup comic who works on her routines with her best friend, Abby. One night, she and Abby meet Kip, another comic their age who is intense and keeps his journal on rolls of paper towels. Kip and Becky quickly fall in love, but Kip's father was violent and he finds himself repeating the pattern. Tashjian, who wrote The Gospel According to Larry (and why haven't you all read it?) handles the symptoms and spiral into abuse beautifully. They're obvious in the book to people who know the signs of an abusive relationship, but Becky doesn't see them. I mentioned this book when I was interviewed a while ago for Salon on teen literature, because the interviewer asked me about the value of teen novels to teen readers, particularly "problem" novels. Although I hadn't read the book yet, I had read the synopsis and enough reviews to know what it was about, and I told the reviewer that books like these can be applied to the lives of my patrons. Even though the teen reading it may not be in an abusive relationship or ever enter one, he or she (because I think this book has definite appeal to male readers) might recognize the signs of a friend's abusive relationship and be able to help his/her friend.

Next on the teen reading list: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. I didn't like The Thief Lord, but I'll try to keep myself open to this one. cheshyre, I'm going to wait until the audio of The Golem's Eye is available to read/listen to it. I just can't get into the print version and I think it's because I listened to The Amulet of Samarkand and the performance was so wonderful.

Not books:

Relatively quiet weekend. I'm still full from the squash soup and Best Mashed Potatoes on the Planet that Mr. Cedar made last night. Wrote about 400 words of the bestiality fic for the newest pornish_pixies challenge and a review of the ultrafabulous Under the Wolf, Under the Dog by Adam Rapp. Betaed Lily/Narcissa for minervacat. Helped adjudicated and narcissam with FictionAlley Niffler applications. Played with the LanchCAST radio thing that Y!M supplies, which has its ups and downs. I like the randomness of the music and that they're giving me some new artists I'm enjoying, but they tend to skip songs at random, as in they give me the title and artist and then never play the song, just skip to the next one. We also did a little more unpacking and the dining room table is actually in the middle of the dining room with the chairs around it. Pretty neat. Almost makes me feel like I'm a grownup.

In five days, I will be in Chicago, watching my parents' 600 cable channels and playing with my furry nieces. But first I have to get through this week and the million and one things I have to do and I see some Starbucks in my future.

Tags: 2004, books
126: busy
780: She said I don't know if I've ever been good enough I'm a little bit rusty

Happy birthday, endofhistory!

The site where I get the sparkly backgrounds is down. WOE! Does anyone know of another I could use?

Mr. Cedar and I are the same height, 5'4" (162.56 cm), and I have always loved the fact that I can hug him and not squish my nose in his sternum. And it appears I'm not alone in not minding short men. Both of us come from long lines of short people. The tallest relative in attendance at our wedding was my dad, who's 5'9". For the record, the tallest man I've ever been in a relationship with was 6'4", the shortest 5'1".

In the last 24 hours, Mr. Cedar has caught three mice in our apartment. I'm officially grossed out. The exterminator is coming Friday, and in the meantime we're blocking the crack in the kitchen wall with that fun expandable foam stuff. I'm off mouse duty because I'm the one that kills the spiders. I'm so married to Ron Weasley.

zeisgeist, I was going to mail your package today and got to work and realize I'd left the book at home. Dumb me. Will try for tomorrow.

If you're in the market for icons, check out the ones saeva just made here.

Philip Pullman talks reading. I'm not that big a fan of his work, but his thoughts on reading and democracy will interest some of you.

Reading: The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon. Booklist gave it a starred review and said it's the "defining book of a new genre." I disagree. 349 pages in, the author still has very little introspection and simply describes what happens in his life. Granted, that in itself is pretty extraordinary, but if this is a new genre, I'm not much interested. Maybe I'll try Devil in the Details. Runyon is now in his twenties, but doesn't offer the perspective of an adult about his experience, only what he felt at the time, and it leaves me kind of empty.

Those of you who like to sing the evils of Internet Explorer and like searching for things will enjoy this piece on Mozilla Firefox. I use it at home but evil Windows XP won't let me do the fun stuff like get the plugins I need to view certain sites. Snarl, growl.

I will not be attending ALA Midwinter this year because I did not get chosen for the Serving the Underserved workshop. That's okay. Next time. But I'm dying to see the results of the Printz award. I'm thinking The Realm of Possibility, which would be cool because it'd be the first time I'd ever read a Printz winner before it won the Printz Award. Hey, there's only so much time to read. Speaking of which, I'd better finish my review because I think my editor's mad at me.

Tomorrow: update on this writing class I'm taking. And maybe some fic if I remember.

Tags: 2004, books
126: hungry
780: I know that I could be a movie star if I could get out of this place

Books:

I read Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles this weekend and what is up with that ending? This one is nowhere near as good as Shattering Glass, which is on my list of books that I could never bring myself to reread because it was so good that I'm scared to read it a second time for fear it won't be as I remember it. Sunny, the main character of Dead Girls..., is really great. She's multidimensional and imperfect but not to the point of being an anti-Mary Sue (i.e. a character flawed beyond reason just because the author wants to not make her a MS). It's a book I'd recommend for those who like a mystery, but not something I'd fight for during a book awards discussion.

Finished Miss Wyoming, and although I found the ending disappointing, I was intrigued by the characters and Douglas Coupland's imagery. I think Hey, Nostradamus! is next, because the library owns it and I'm on serious book-buying restrictions. As in, I can't. That's after I (finally) read The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. I'm always about a million years behind the adult bestsellers.

Currently reading: Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo. On page fifteen. Like it so far. It's very classic British coming-of-age fantasy.

I'm out of room on my teen fiction shelves at work and have to do major shifting this week. Blech.

Fandom:

Sort of essay planned for Wednesday: Why Remus Lupin would not want to cure his lycanthropy, even if someone in the wizarding world figured out how to do it.

I have porn due in a week for the October pornish_pixies Fantasy Fest and for the life of me, I cannot make Remus and Sirius have sex. They're eating and talking and holding hands and hugging and Sirius is being very wibbly and vulnerable which is sort of how I like him around Remus, but they will not take their clothes off. This would not be a problem if I wasn't writing the fic for a community that focuses on NC-17 fic. *facedesk*

RL:

Is seriously getting in the way of fandom. On the bright side, I found my lox and bagel pajamas.

Tags: 2004, books, fandom
126: envious

Many posts today.

Articles:

1) I bet they didn't teach you in library school that not only are you a librarian, but you're also the parent to all the children in town! And once again, the person who gets the most talking time in the article is not a librarian and does not have a library degree. Honestly, people like this just make me want to spin my head and spray the pea soup I ate for lunch.

2) Review/article/thoughts on Welcome to Lizard Motel, beloved by everyone except for the people who actually know a thing or two about children's and teen literature. Katherine Paterson is so fabulous.

Books:

Got my reading assignments today for the 2006 Garden State Teen Book Awards. I have seventeen assigned books and I've only read one. Guess I know what I'll be doing from now until the middle of February. Looking at the list makes me see that I'm woefully behind on my YA reading. And also? I didn't really get anything that I want to read. But that's okay. I can always go and read the other books on my own time if I want. In fact, I should.

OMG I'm in love. I started Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland and I want to write like him. Best imagery Evah.

Scholastic sent me copies of Lucas and Getting the Girl from their Push imprint. Read 'em both already, but they're both really good.

Discussion on NEXGENLIB-L is about the MLIS degree and who needs it and who doesn't and how it's always astonishing that jobs that pay $23,000 a year always want you to have two Masters degrees and a third arm.

Tags: 2004, books, librarianship
126: hyper

I'm writing from my Shiny New Work Computer that doesn't give me the Blue Screen of Death on a daily basis, so am happy. I have Delirium wallpaper, but still need a screensaver.

Finished: Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis. 15-year-old scientist and philosopher Luther T. Farrell is raised by one of the richest, most corrupt women in Flint, MI. Read it. It's full of Curtis's trademark sarcasm and humor, but has a much darker tone than his previous books. It's on my shortlist for the Printz Award. Definitely for older YAs, 8th grade and up. Mock Printz nominations are the topic of discussion on YALSA-BK today, so I replied with Under the Wolf, Under the Dog by Adam Rapp (and YA BNF Richie Partington agrees with me on that), The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan, and Double Helix by Nancy Werlin. I hear that Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now might be a contender, but I haven't read it yet.

Next adult book on my reading list: Bling by Erica Kennedy. 'Cause it just looks like fun. Followed by The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

sartorias, someone recced one of your books today on YALSA-BK.

Fandom Wednesdays.

Recently, the wonderful pauraque had a "Guess who you are on my friendslist" meme, and I guessed correctly that I was the Peter writer from a ways back who didn't post much about the Harry Potter fandom anymore. When he said that, I stopped to think why.

When I first joined the fandom, as many of you know, I was out of work and unable to work because of severe back problems. I was raised by a fandomer so I've known about fic, slash, shipping, etc. for the better part of my life, so even though I was sort of resistant to joining fandom because Ma Cedar is a fandomer, I did join. I wrote to pass time and looked forward to reading fics, meeting new efriends, etc. During that time, I started this journal, and I was primarily known as Cedar the Harry Potter Fandomer.

In March, 2003, I was more or less recovered enough to go back to work, and I got the job I have now. My work means a lot to me. I'm proud to say that I love what I do and am good at it, and I want to share my career experiences in my blog. Being a teen librarian is more time-consuming than most people think, and while I certainly don't mind the extra time committments (reading alone is at least 5 hours a week), it does seep into your brain. I like discussing books and am lucky to have a friendslist full of interesting people who like to read, and who I have a lot in common with besides a mutual love of Harry Potter.

As I posted more and more about YA lit, I found that YA lit types, authors and librarians, friended my blog. (Oh, and y'all should know that I am absolutely horrible about checking my friend-of/friended/defriended list and maybe check it once every two or three months if I remember, so if I haven't friended you back, that may be the reason.) And I am a person who likes to impress other people. I felt like I was becoming more known as Cedar the YA Librarian rather than Cedar the Harry Potter Fandomer. I like both titles and want to keep them. I should also get over my wibblies and figure out that YA lit people have a scroll bar on their browsers and can just go past the fandom stuff. Although I'm not a person who gets embarrassed, I find that I sometimes feel uncomfortable posting about fandom stuff since I know this blog is read by YA lit types, which is just dumb of me to think. All a person has to do is click the "TDA" link on my journal page, or read through my entries, and they'll know well and good about my HP fandom involvement. I don't know why until now I've been so neurotic...and will probably continue to be neurotic because I'm just that way...about YA lit professionals reading my fanfic.

My name is Cedar, I'm a teen librarian, and I write Harry Potter fanfic. And I enjoy writing it. I write slash, gen, femmeslash, and would like to write het even though I haven't yet done so.

So while replying in a much shorter comment to pauraque about why I don't post as much fandom stuff anymore, I had a thought: As I make time to write and read, I should make time to post about fandom, not because I feel I have to (those who know me well know that I mostly feel that I don't have to do anything *g*), but because I enjoy fandom. Call me a nerd. I don't care. Every Wednesday, and more often if I get the chance, I will make a fandom post. It might be an essay, or a rec, or a bit of fic, or a rant about the bit of fic. It might be about the fandom as a whole, or it might be entirely self-absorbed Anne-Rice-worthy wankery. But I'm going to have fun writing it.

( First Fandom Wednesday post, in which I realize I'm years behind on my reading. Also, houses. )

Ugh. Have to go lug new computers upstairs to the children's department. Next Wednesday, or before: Why I write the fics I do.

Tags: 2004, books, fandom
126: busy
780: well I'm gonna raise a fuss yeah I'm gonna raise a holler