Reading: Dubosarsky

[sartorias]

I finally forced myself to finish Ursula Dubosarsky's Abysinnia, which I had begun weeks ago, and set aside because this is just not a children's book--nor is it (to me) satisfying as an adult novel

Comments

[merriehaskell]

"Best" meaning something that satisfies you both as a reader and as a writer of the same. Award-winning... well, that's nice, but not what I mean. Favorites that go beyond being personally satisfying (now) and end up serving as models for your chosen art.

My livejournal is the claptrap and bobtail of life; most reading is done more publicly elsewhere, like my entry about The Blue Sword, in fact. But I don't know that I've ever waxed effusive about the bests (not all in one place), either.

Yes. A discussion of writing-for-kids guideposts would be lovely. I use McKinley's The Blue Sword, which I read obsessively then and now. Jackaroo and the other Kingdom books by Cynthia Voigt, which just seem to get more intense every time I read them. Tamora Pierce's Alanna books, for pacing. And, well, Crown Duel got me through my most recent endeavor. Not flattery, just fact. It's attained a place in my landscape that surprises me, since I read the other books at a much younger age.

I have others I hold as a standard in the back of my mind, but do not re-read regularly or intensively... The High King by Lloyd Alexander. Diana Wynne Jones' Dalemark quartet. Most of everything else written by McKinley. Less archetypal things: The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye. The Perilous Gard by Pope. Just recently grew attached to the Tanith Lee Wolf series, but need to reread before I give it cult status.

I could go on for a long time, so I'm going to stop right here and now. :)

[sartorias]

I loved your entry about The Blue Sword. I can see wanting to read it just before one's wedding as it is so very romantic a book, in all the very best senses.

I have an enormous list of books that are personally satisfying, and all for different reasons, but because I seem to do everything bass-ackwards, I've never had any models: from the moment I got really serious about writing, at age eight, I always had the ideal story (MY ideal I hasten to say) and I gloried in reading books that came close in this or that aspect, but the ideal was always there--for many decades along with the conviction that "they" would never publish any of them because I did not obey the "rules."

Still, it might be worth trying to articulate my own guideposts, just to see if any of it resonates with anyone else, or if it seems like so much hot air. Let me think about this a bit.

[merriehaskell]

I'm not sure if my list of models is "right"--I mean, if it's the right thing to do, or isn't just as backwards as any other method of writing. I suppose keeping a sort of goal in your conscious mind isn't bad, but I have vague worries about unconscious plagiarism. My model books are mostly to help me set my mood, though; I want to convey the same sense of excitement that was given to me by the model book, and I feel I can convey it better if I'm already in that mood.

Anyway. Rambling.