Comfort reading

Some people eat too much when they're upset. Others get drunk

I read too much bad teen fiction. 

I'm pretty sure my way is worst.

I've done a lot of reading in the past couple of weeks. Like, I would guess around 5,000 pages worth.

The good news is that not all of it was the mental equivalent of cheap ice cream. I also read some Oscar Wilde and Sylvia Plath and the like.

The bad news is that one of the things I read was the Draco Trilogy, which, aside from being Harry Potter fanfiction, is also infinity pages long. So statistically speaking, I was lying in the last paragraph - everything I read over the past two weeks was by Cassandra Claire (to be fair to Ms. Claire, her books are the mental equivalent of good ice cream). 

Here's something odd about reading paranormal romance books meant for people half your age (OK, fine, there are a lot of odd things about that, but you know what I meant): 

After book one, you think, "OK, that was stupid but kind of enjoyable. Now on to real books."

After book three, you think, "I'm so ashamed."

After book six or so, you start to see patterns (I mean subtext patterns, not the obvious "oh hey look they're all about hot half-human guys taking an interest in completely boring teenage girls" thing). At some point I started getting so interested in paranormal romance as sociology research that I stopped even trying to stop myself. I stopped caring if the books were any good (most were not). 

I now have a list of new bad teen fiction books I want to read to help me complete my informal research on societal views of homosexuality as portrayed in paranormal romance novels of the early 21st century. (Research on feminism in paranormal romance will take place concurrently). It promises to be, if not fun times, at least a distraction.

And now, I must ask my readers a favor - if you see me in the next few days, say, "Ali, if you need a distraction, you could try reading those two statistics books you have left." I need to hear it, and for once, there's nobody I'm sure will say it. 

And now and now - for book reviews.