Thank You...

...to the kind soul that sent me a copy of the latest Twilight book with the injunction "READ IT TILL YOU GET IT" scrawled on the wrapper. I appreciate it, but I do feel obliged to point out a few things.

• I have read the book.  In fact I still have the copy I bought. Although there's some books I go back and re-read every once in a while, this is probably not one of them, alas.
• I'm glad you're reading and enjoying books. That's awesome at a time when every year someone doefully predicts the death of reading and the slow death spiral into an Idiocracy-type world. If you liked the Meyer books, you're probably ready for adult urban fantasy when you are at a loss for other reading. One author you might like a lot is Patricia Briggs, who writes werewolves set in the Couer d'Alene area, or Kelley Armstrong, who has vampires and werewolves and a lot of other fun stuff. I recently found T.A. Pratt's BLOOD ENGINES and POISON SLEEP, and I wish there were more of those, because they were pretty darn good. Holly Black's books are something I'd add to that list as well. The early Laurell K Hamilton Anita Blake books have a strong heroine, but as they go on, the books are more and more about sex and less and less about the cooler stuff, depending on your tastes. All of those should be available in the F&SF section of your bookstore.  My all-time favorite YA novel is SORCERY AND CECILIA, by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, but I don't know that you would like it unless you have a taste for Regency romances. And I'm sure I'm overlooking all sorts of wonderful stuff that people should feel free to add in the comments.
• I usually donate my excess books to the Women's Prison Book Project, but they only take paperbacks. If you want to drop me a line to say where I should send the book, I'll do that, otherwise I'll donate it, with my hardback copies of the last two, to a local youth shelter.
• When mailing books, you can usually save yourself some cash if you use media rate.
• And finally, you might want to think about why you objected to my post so much, because clearly there's something big and emotional here for you. I wish you only the best.