The Downfall of the Printed Word?

Reading has been on my mind a lot this last week or so.  Really, reading is always on my mind because I am always reading, but what I mean is the state of reading is on my mind.

It basically started with the rumors that Borders was going to file for bankruptcy and close down a la Circuit City.  I realized that this left only Barnes and Nobles and the handful of independent book sellers who have survived the big box retailers reign.  Barnes and Noble would purchase the remaining stock Borders had and a few choice locations … basically, Barnes & Noble would take over the book world.

I know that a lot of purists believe that retailers like B&N and Borders are the ruination of the book world and they’re right.  We should buy from Indie book sellers and support our local community, but it doesn’t come cheap.  Books are a want, not a need so it’s hard to justify spending the extra dollars, oftentimes almost twice the price of B&N, on a book.  Sure, reading is a necessity for me.  I live and breathe books, but really it is a pleasure purchase and I would say I get 50% of my books from the library.  When I buy a book I make sure it’s a book I know I’ll love and I get it from B&N.  I suck.  But I buy A LOT of books and I have to make sure that I get the best price, right?

And then there is the world of YA books.  I love them.  I eat them up like candy.  Some are really good, beyond good.  They’re the kind of books that although they are classified as YA books they should be read by adults as well.  Off the top of my head these would include Speak and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver and After by Amy Efaw.  Powerful, memorable books that speak to you in a voice that resonates with who you were or are now or who you could have been.

However, thanks to Harry Potter & Twilight (both I LOVE – bordering on obsess) the movie industry has turned everything they think might possibly repeat the success of the two powerhouses into a movie.  That in turn has brought everyone out of the woodwork.  Authors like James Patterson and Kathy Reichs are putting books out into the YA world.  Now, I know James Patterson has been ‘writing’ YA fiction for awhile with the Maximum Ride series which is kind of a spin off of When the Wind Blows and The Lake House.  His most recent YA series, Witch and Wizard was one of worst pieces of crap I have ever read.  Seriously, that was so bad I cannot bring myself to even consider reading the sequel even though the first book left you on a major cliffhanger.  Ugh.  It makes me angry all over again just to think about it.

Suzanne Collins’s electrifying success with The Hunger Games trilogy has of course granted her movie immortality.  Those movies are slated to begin in 2013.  Others?  Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series, Carrie Ryan’s Forest of Hands & Teeth, Amanda Hocking’s Trylle series and of course, Maximum Ride will soon be coming to a theatre near you to name a few.  And that’s great for them.

And it’s not just YA.  They just announced that they would be making a film adaptation of my favorite Dean Koontz’s series, Odd Thomas.  Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants will be coming out this year as well as the American version of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series and Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

But what really has driven me insane is I Am Number Four.  Written by a poor ghost writer who was whipped until finishing by the devil in disguise James Frey.  Yes, that James Frey.  Why wouldn’t he jump on the YA bandwagon?  Well, Mr. Frey takes it one step further.  He started a company called Full Fathom Five and all he is doing is peddling YA books he hires college students to ghost write for him.  He then keeps 60%-70% of the proceeds while the actual author gets next to nothing.  Before the book was even finished the movie was in the making.  And another series has been sold to Will Smith’s company for his daughter.

It literally disgusts me.  I get that people want to make money.  I get it.  But I want there to be some sort of integrity left in literature.  It pains me that I know people who thought that I Am Number Four is a wonderful book when really, it was just okay and will probably be a better movie than it was a book.  But even worse, because he can’t write worth shit he grabs these kids and has them write for him while he makes all the money.  Apparently, his berating by Oprah has not changed him for the better.