Close, but no cigar

I recently had two books on my mental to-review list, but, alas, the world interfered, and it was not to be. I do have another book review waiting to be written. For now you get the reasons why the world interfered!


I recently raided my younger sister's YA Lit collection to see what I'd missed during the years when I was too busy to read anything but homework. One of the books I grabbed was Lauren Myracle's ttyl. I loved Myracle's Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks, which I read a few months ago. It was beautifully bittersweet, and I was excited to snag another of Myracle's books.

Then I opened it. And saw the entire first page written in IM-speak. And the next page was written the same way. I ran over to formerly mentioned sister and asked if the whole thing was written that way. When she said yes, I put it right back on her bookshelf where I'd found it.

Let me first state that I don't have anything against that form as a general rule. Heck, I would've loved it as an 11 year old. However, I am now twice that age and probably three times more jaded and four times less patient. I had to stop using 'u' for 'you' in seventh grade when my teachers started to get annoyed with it, and it was far easier just to use standard writing all the time than to switch back and forth. After that point I completely ceased having any patience for IM-speak or text-speak. I imagine middle schoolers would love having a book written in their dialect, but it was just going to make my brain explode. I'll just have to find another Myracle book written in slightly more standard English orthography.


The next book was acquired from the new city's public library. While the neighborhood branch has a pathetic little YA section that barely compares to the YA selection available at the old city's neighborhood branch (which was admittedly the central branch that just happened to be in my neighborhood), it did have a copy of Liz Gallagher's The Opposite of Invisible, which was on my to-read list. I read the first two pages, which seemed promising, and then was suddenly confused when the sentence on the end of the second page had nothing to do with the one on the next page. Turns out a page was missing in between the two.

Well, it was only pages three and four, so I went ahead and kept reading. It was early in the book and I was pretty sure I'd be able to figure things out. And I was. Until the end of page eight, after which there was another page missing. I was getting a little annoyed, but I was willing to keep up the effort, especially when Chapter two (the first complete chapter I got to read) seemed pretty good. Chapter three kept my attention as well, until the second to last page was also torn out.

At that point I gave up and decided to check out a different copy of the book. I can only handle so much guesswork.

So, excuses made, new review coming sometime this week. Promise!