PLEASE DO NOT THROW THE YA GENRE UNDER THE BUS it is filled with diversity that goes far beyond whatever makes it to the movies! Please give it a chance!
When it comes to asexual representation in books, I’m most
interested in reading ace main characters written by ace authors. Ace side
characters are always great, but I really love getting the ace character’s
point of view, and I believe authors who are ace themselves are best equipped
to pull that off realistically. Thinking about this, I ended up making the
following list of all the books/series I could find that have an ace-spec MC
(or at least a point-of-view character) and were written by an ace-spec author.
Click the links for more info and discussion. If you know of any I missed, I’d
love to hear about them!
i used to be so into all these romance novels but now that i am more aware and i know more…… i fucking hate them like i really dont want to read about a white boy and a white girl falling in love in different circumstances again. unfortunately thats basically the entirety of the YA genre. i guess my point is that im so sick of heterosexuality being in every goddamn book i read.
You don’t like heterosexuality being the default? Me neither! Try a book from one of these lists:
Never feel guilty for reading fan fic at 3am. Everything is fanfic in the end. From fanfic you were made, to fanfic you shall return.
Read that which has been panned by literary snobs. Read novels churned out by the dozen by authors with a dozen pseudonyms.
Read your US and People. Flip through Popular Science just for the gadgets section. Read articles about the perfect chocolate chip cookie.
Read books outside your comfort zone. Don’t finish them if you don’t want. It’s the book’s fault, not yours.
Read in your comfort zone. Read a YA and romance and science if and fantasy.
Skip over the boring bits. Read it because you heard about it from Oprah or because everyone else is reading it.
Giggle yourself silly at something so poorly written and full of author wish fulfillment that you just can’t stop reading it.
Don’t listen to the keepers of taste and culture. Their reward comes every time they pat themselves on the back for their superior taste.
Don’t listen to the academics that bemoan the downfall of society and learning. They have been doing that since Socrates’ time.
Don’t listen to the tv presenters who insist you are not cultured if you haven’t read from this list of books.
Audio books count as reading. Ebooks count as reading. Fanfic of questionable quality counts as reading. Rereading books for the third time counts as reading. Reading to your child counts as reading. Reading from the back of the cereal box (and doing the puzzle) counts as reading.
TL;DR: read what you want. Don’t be ashamed. Never let someone try to make you feel bad for how or what you read and enjoy. Tell them that I, your Friendly Neighborhood Librarian have absolved you from your guilt and have given you special blessings. Go forth and read, my child.
Don’t listen to the keepers of taste and culture. Their reward comes every time they pat themselves on the back for their superior taste.
One ought not to judge her: All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking things and leap so very high that grown-up hearts flutter in terror.
Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making (via zuiol)
That’s how you get the future: You mix up everything you did today with everything you did yesterday and all the days before and everything anyone you ever met did and anyone they ever met, too.
Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making
As a writer you eventually figure out the kinds of stories and shapes and characters that you want to spend time with—as a reader, too. The more honest you are with yourself about the particular, peculiar-to-you kinds of things that you enjoy, or that you have an interesting quarrel with, the easier it is to reach for them as you work.
starry-eyed 