Parenthetical.net

Every year, my library has a Book Fair, where kids can buy their summer reading books and whatever else looks like fun. The books come from Big Corporate Bookstore, which is nice enough to give us a cut of the profits. It’s a pretty good deal for everyone.

Anyway, Friday my boss and I went to Big Corporate Bookstore to pick out the non-summer reading books that we want to sell. I was set loose on the YA and Young Readers sections with a cart and instructions to “go crazy.” Don’t have to tell me twice!

So what did I learn from this immersion in the current crop of popular YA publications?

• I never want to see another pink cover again.
• I especially never want to see another pink cover with rich-bitch teenagers looking sluttily at me, the prospective reader.
• Vampires are the new pirates.