Homemaking: Reading becomes a tweenage dream
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Like almost every other American household this year, our family ended up with a lot of new electronic items after the holidays. I got an iPad, one of those gifts you don't know you want until you have it. Suddenly, I could check my email and watch silly YouTube videos from any spot in the house, even the bathroom. My 15-year-old daughter, who loves to read, got her own dream gift, a Kindle e-reader, and immediately went about buying some books online.
It turns out my iPad can double as an e-book reader much like the Kindle. Once I got tired of checking email every five minutes and watching endless YouTube videos, I signed into our Amazon account to see what my daughter had already purchased. The only books in our account were from the "Hunger Games" series. I'd never heard of them, but my daughter said they were really thrilling, and I'd love them.
Because I was too cheap to actually download and pay for a book myself, I figured I'd just stick with the books that were already in our account. I'm not the only cheapskate in the family. We gave my father-in-law a Kindle for Christmas, and so far, the only thing he's put on there is a Sherlock Holmes book -- because it's the only free download he could find. When I tried to show him how to actually pay for a book on his computer and pointed to the "buy it now" button on the screen, I thought he was going to snap my finger off when he thought I'd authorized a payment.
The "Hunger Games," for anyone who is a male of the species and/or over 17, is a series of books about a teenage girl in the future who battles against an oppressive dictator while, of course, having to choose between two really hunky boys. Mostly, though, the books are about a teenage girl who has to choose between two really hunky boys. Books aimed at teenage girls seem to have a common theme. The world might be in the balance, good and evil might be fighting to death, or your neighborhood might be crawling with vampires and werewolves, but all that really matters is whether you pick the dark mysterious boy or the earnest, wholesome one.
Once I started reading, though, I kept going. Would Katniss, the pretty girl from District 12, survive in the arena against her bloodthirsty adversaries? Would she challenge the evil President Snow and free her people? Who was cuter, Peeta (the wholesome blonde), or Gale (dark and mysterious)? OMG!
All was well until my wife looked over my shoulder one day and noticed I was reading tweenage girl fiction. She could have let it go, but she gave me a long hard look like she had walked in the room and found me playing with Barbies. (She never has. Honest.)
The ribbing hasn't stopped since. At the mall, she asked me if I wanted to buy a Twilight T-shirt. She inquired if I wanted to put a Justin Bieber poster on our bedroom wall. She even offered that I could have some girls over for a sleepover and rent "Titanic."
My daughter and I, however, have something to talk about. She has to be careful not to say anything to spoil the story (I'm a slow reader, and she's way ahead of me). And when the movie comes out in March, I'm taking her for opening night, even if I have to elbow a few middle school girls out of the way to be first in line.
We profoundly disagree, however, on one issue. The other day, I was walking through the kitchen, and she asked, out of the blue, who Katniss should end up with. I didn't even have to think it over. Peeta, of course. He was the nice wholesome boy with the winning personality. She made a gagging noise. Nice boys like Peeta, she assured me, were boring, almost girlish. She'd dump him in a second for the brooding, dangerous Gale.
Nice guys, the kind who would read a book just to have something to talk to their daughter about, get a bad rap. I was really offended. So much so that I don't think I'm going to let her read the copy of "Twilight" I downloaded last night.
First Published January 28, 2012 12:00 am
