Thursday Thoughts: Notes, Giving NA Another go?, Narrative Journalism

This is a new feature that will be looking at blogging, books, and anything of any relevance to the YA Blogosphere in short form. It's meant to start a discussion by offering quick thoughts from Mari and P.E. on a variety of topics. 

Notes while Reading

by P.E.

I never write notes when reading except for school. I'm currently doing it for a class, and it is exhausting. Every time I write a note, I feel like I'm being jarred out of the story. It's hard to be consumed with what's happening when I constantly evaluate myself on what I read, why was it written that way, what rhetorical devices were used, etc. The one benefit seems to be that my memory for the story is very good: through 250 pages, I can clearly remember every quote my teacher mentioned as significant because I wrote about it. How do some people write notes for reviews?

Giving NA Another Go?

by Mari

Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with the content of the following paragraph....

So I've been a lot little cautious of the NA category. I like romance, I don't mind steamy scenes, and I really like the intended age. However, when NA first started out it acquired this teen erotica reputation with the never ending supply of: "Troubled girl meets mysterious hot playboy who won't settle down because of his dark and mysterious past. Of course no one but said troubled girl can save him." While 2 or even 3 of such reads can be fun, especially if spread out nicely, too many gets old. You start to wonder if what you're reading is quality fiction especially when it seems like the book has no plot and wasn't even edited properly... Still every now and then I've stumbled on some gems and they give me hope. I wonder if now that the category has been around for a couple of years if it has diversified to include more stories and if so then I'll have to start digging in. Any suggestions?

Narrative Journalism

by P.E.

I've been reading so much narrative journalism recently that I could puke. It is not a genre that suits me, with it's excessive focus on the minutiae. It's really one of the only types of writing that calls for infodumping because the author has researched so extensively and feels like all these characteristics bring the story to life. Narrative journalism is non-fiction, and I very clearly feel it is nonfiction because it is very heavy to read with many details that must be remembered. I miss first-person prose. For reference, I read Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink and am reading Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt. Both deal with quite heavy subject matter and are worth the read. What do you think of narrative journalism? Is it a genre you've explored?

-P.E. and MARI