I am tired.

After reading Roger's post the other day (and the response at Finding Wonderland with lots of comments at both) my knee jerk reaction was to start screaming out in defense of YA literature as a valid and worthwhile read for adults and then I thought - oh why bother. This is the same argument that has been going around for years now, just using a different fill in the blank genre to be judgmental about what people read. You do remember the great Chick Lit vs Not Chick Lit War of 2006, right? Reading Nora Roberts apparently made me deluded and man crazy. This isn't far from the SF makes you a geek who can't relate to other people judgment, or that adventure novels make you shallow, westerns make you just like you grandfather (and not in a good way) and fantasy - well, reading fantasy means you can't deal with reality.

I'm not even going to talk about John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Stephen King or Danielle Steel - anyone who reads them is addicted to beaches and/or blankets - regardless of the season they are consumed.

Just stop, okay? I don't give a flying fuck what anyone reads. Read what you want to read and enjoy it. Life is hard enough without judging a person based on the cover of their book. People have reasons for choosing what they read - reasons that the rest of us don't know a damn thing about. And it is their business. You want to sit and talk about them over coffee with your friends, shake your head when you see them on the subway or laugh about them when you pass them on the street? Whatever. Go ahead if that's what you want to do. Me personally, I'm way more concerned about if Latin America is going to explode, if Gaza is going to explode, if Baghdad is going to explode, if Kabul is going to explode and if anyone is ever going to care enough about Chechnya again to even wonder if it's going to explode.

There is so much going on in the world today; we have to waste our time making derisive comments about people's reading material? Do we know if people who read YA fiction also watch the nightly news? Do they read CNN daily? Do they research candidates and vote? Are they active in their communities and dedicated to volunteering to help make the world a better place? In other words - what defines them, the book you see them reading or what they do to change the world?

Or are we just too busy judging to think much beyond that?

Last night I read part of an adult novel, part of a YA novel, part of an Alt History novel and an article in The Economist. (Oh - and some Batman comics.) I had my reasons for all of it and no - I'm not going justify my choices or explain them. I read what I wanted to read.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to see what Barack Obama has to to say today; that's important to me. Adults reading young adult novels? That's just freedom of choice in action. Be happy we all live in a country where this kind of argument is even possible; be happy we live in a place where we even get the time to read for pleasure.

I am so tired of this.