Wednesday 4 March 2015

Bookish Musings - #UKYA: My Past, Present and Future


For those of you whom the wonderful fact passed you by, I was born, live and will probably always live in the UK (not London though, there is much more to the UK than just London mind..) We're not exactly a huge place, although, we do have A LOT of people who live here, including, a lot of popular and well loved authors, those of whom I shall get to very soon. However, I have noticed that I, a UK living and breathing citizen, felt as though I hadn't been reading much work from the authors that actually live where I live, and eat the food I eat, and suffer the same rubbish weather forecasts that I do, and I was ashamed. Publishing is already becoming more and more difficult in this day and age, with publishing houses closing because they can't afford to run themselves, with many authors turning to self-publishing, the whole system is developing huge cracks, and that's just the publishing houses in the US, never mind how difficult those in the UK must be.

At some point, on a day I can't recall, I made a decision to take a look at all the books I owned and were considering reading, all the books I had already read and all the books I might, in the future, want to read, and take a look at how many were actually UK based, either by author or by publishing, and see just how much I had or hadn't been supporting these wonderful, talented people. Fair to say, my findings were much more interesting and positive than I had first imagined, so I thought I'd share them with you all - the UKYA books I've read, plan on reading and want to read in the future. All books mentioned in their respective categories are true as of 28/01/2015.

UKYA Books I've Already Read

The Dark Heroine | Forbidden | Dangerous Girls | Where You'll Find Me | Riot | Thirteen
Blood Red Road | Skulduggery Pleasant Series | Spooks #1, #2, #3 | Jessie Hearts NYC | Love Bomb | Spiders
The Last Leaves Falling | Dangerous Boys | The Year of the Rat | Keep the Faith | Have a Little Faith | Isobel Journal
Emma Hearts LA | Flirty Dancing | Witch Finder | A Song for Ella Grey | Dead Girls Walking | Dead Girls Detective

I hadn't realised I'd read as many UKYA books as I have, with even more included than I've featured, including all of the other eight Skulduggery Pleasant novels and the second and third Spooks novels, but to say I'm really proud of this is an understatement. I'd expected an awful lot less. A little interesting fact for you: the average rating I gave this novels in total is 3.6, and considering that one got 0 stars and another three got 2 star, this really isn't a bad average to have. Favourites featured included Abigail Haas, Tom Hoyle, Derek Landy, Jenny Maclachlan and Candy Harper, so do check out their books.

UKYA Books I Own/Plan To Read Soon

*Books have since been read since collages were made.

Half Wild | Half Bad* | Manifesto on How to be Interesting | Slated | Mind Games* | Young, Gifted and Dead
Adorkable | Tape | Infinite Sky | Torn | Monster Calls | Apple and Rain
Trash | Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson | Flesh and Blood* | Hunting Lila | Breathe | Trouble

The moment I decided I was going to make an effort to read more UKYA reads, I was really pleased to see how much I already owned, and how easily I could add to my already read books. These also a handful of reads here that I've either owned for a while, or am very excited to read. Many of these books have gotten really positive reviews; Trouble, Manifesto, Apple and Rain and Tape, so I'm excited.

UKYA Books I'm Waiting To Release/To Buy/To Read


Night School | ACID | Stolen | You Against Me | Screaming Staircase | Sin Eaters Daughter
Boys Don't Knit | More Than This | There Will Be Lies | Undone | She Is Not Invisible | Unspeakable
Soulmates | The Art of Being Normal | Novice | Someone Else's Life | Say Her Name | Out of Control

As the title would suggest, these are just some of the books and the authors their buy that are in my eye line and that I'm keeping track of. I've taken out More Than This, Someone Else's life and Stolen from the library before, I just never got around to reading them, where-as I'd like to finally do that where possible. Let's just say, my future looks as though it could have a lot of UKYA books in it.

Do you try to read a lot of UKYA books?

Are you from the UK and considering reading more from the glorious land of green and rain?
Do you live elsewhere and are looking for some interesting reads elsewhere in the world?

6 comments:

  1. I live in the UK too! But to be honest, I haven't had a ton of luck with UK books. I find that I'm interested in far fewer UKYA books than YA books from the US. I can just find more books that I click with in the US. I wonder if that's because I actually am an American, despite living in the UK? Hmm...

    And the few UKYA books I have read, I haven't been that fond of. Maybe I just have rotten luck!

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    1. Ahh, really Ashley? It could be because your heart is in the US, I don't know really, maybe some people have better luck than others. Maybe you just haven't found the right books? Who knows!

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  2. Wow from looking at your lists I can see that I have so many UKYA books to read, I don't know why I always find myself gravitating towards U.S books more, but I think I definitely will have to tray and make a dent in my stack too, I am especially looking forward to reading Forbidden, Dangerous Girls. Soulmates and Trouble!

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    1. I usually find myself doing it too, but I'm trying to have a good quarter at least to be UKYA books this year, I'm tracking them now! Dangerous Girls and Forbidden were such good reads, good luck!x

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  3. I LOVE UK YA! I often love it the best, actually, I mean apart from most of my top fav authors being American. Buuut, Sally Green. SALLY GREEN. Also Patrick Ness and Neil Gaiman. AFJkldsaF I love them. I'm really pleased I've read a lot on your lists too! Bits and pieces from all of them, actually. Although my #1 source of books is definitely USA. *sigh* They seem to have the monopoly? Or maybe they just have better publicity?
    I do this for Australian books though, like I read barely ANY Aussie books and I'm always trying to read more. xD

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    1. It's okay Cait, my #1 source is US books too, it sucks, but I'm trying to read more UK reads this year! Good luck with reading more Aussie reads, I really should too! :)

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