Last Five Things… I Read
Posted by meredith on 03-17-2009Today's Youth Advisory Board post is the latest installment of the YAB feature "Last Five Things" from Megan Reid. Inspired by all the recent rumblings about print media and literacy, Meg interviewed young people about "the last five things" they read (both online and off). Remember, you can communicate directly with the Ypulse Youth Advisory Board by emailing them at youthadvisoryboard at ypulse.com Here's what she found…
Last Five Things… I Read
The High Schoolers
Name: Daniella
Age: 16
Hometown: Phoenix, AZ
1. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien: They forced me to read it at school, even though I am enjoying it. It is much more interesting than I thought.
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare: It was for independent reading
at school, because they made us pick a classic.
3. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: My teacher recommended it and I loved it, so…
4. Specials by Scott Westerfeld: Because I couldn't find Pretties (the second book in the trilogy) at the library and I loved Uglies.
5. Lucky by Alice Sebold: Just for fun. I read The Lovely Bones and loved it, and this is by the same author
Name: Kaitlin
Age: 18
Hometown: South Pasadena, CA
1. Metamorphosis by Kafka: I'm rereading it before we read it in class
2. Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor: For pleasure
3. An article out of National Geographic about baboons: Because I love animals
4. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett: For class
5. A new article from The Journal: A local newspaper about the music acts and venues that are coming up this week
Name: Alan
Age: 17
Hometown: Norton, MA
1. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
2. Eldest by Christopher Paolini
3. Eragon by Christopher Paolini: I read all three books in "The Inheritance Cycle "for fun.
4. Kurt Kobain's Diary: For musical inspiration and Music Theory (the latter being an elective class).
5. A book of musical philosophy: Also for Music Theory
The College Kids
Name: Yanouchka
Age: 20
Hometown: Dartmouth, MA
1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: For pleasure
2. The Jak & Jil blog at jakandjil.com: Because I need to be up to date with what is going on with Fashion Week (I run a style blog at vaingloriousandproud.blogspot.com…I was checking up on Milan.
3. Forbes magazine: My dad recommends that I read it
4. A music blog: I go to music blogs in general to look for electro music, because there isn't much on the radio.
5. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris: It's the first book in the series that the TV show "True Blood" is based on. I've had a thing for vampires since I was like, five.
Name: Matt H.
Age: 19
Hometown: Douglasville, GA
1. Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay & Lesbian Liberation by Urvashi Vaid: I have a presentation on Wednesday for my Politics of Sexual Minority Communities class
2. A Reuters article called "UN to scrutinize Obama on anti-terrorism": For a paper I have due on the 30th for a class called "American Government: The President's Prospects for Success"
3. A CNN article called "Letter urges Obama to push for democracy in Mideast" : same class, same reason.
4. An article in The Boston Globe at Boston.com called "Obama huddles with UN chief": Again, same class, same reason.
5. A story on FoxNews.com "Obama administration's foreign policy gaffes": same as above.
Name: Matt
Age: 22
Hometown: East Greenwich, RI
1. Several academic journal articles on Mao: For the paper I'm writing tonight.
2. A book on Mao.
3. Some documents for a history class.
4. Another book on Russia for a history class. Plus, one on Beijing.
5. The Wire (my college newspaper): Yeah, I'm not very diverse in my reading at the moment!
The Recent Grad
Name: Mandy
Age: 22
Hometown: Flagstaff, AZ
1. A guitar instruction book: I teach lessons
2. The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil: For my work at a restaurant and wine bar
3. A Billy Collins poetry book. He's AMAZING, and he's a former Poet Laureate
4. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger: Actually, this one's still in progress.
5. An online NPR article on something dealing with Obama's new policies…I forget exactly
About Megan Reid
Megan is a college student, freelancer and hardcore bookworm. She began writing fashion articles for her hometown newspaper at age 15, and her work has since appeared in publications like Boston magazine, Mountain Living and CosmoGirl. Meg also loves theatre and the arts, and when she's not sending postcards, devouring YA novels, or reading up on 19th-century cultural studies, she's probably dragging someone along on a late-night ice cream/Starbucks run. Meg has lived in three (soon to be four) countries and five states, though she currently resides in Arizona.
For more coverage of YA books and publishing, check out the Ypulse Books Channel sponsored by the NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL: FIND BEAUTY CHALLENGE! (LB Teens).
Categorized under: Books & Print, Youth Advisory Board