Marilyn Thiele
It started slowly in our area. Quite honestly, I was barely aware of the author. His books were on and off the young adult best seller list, and I kept a few in stock. As with The Book Thief, on the list for years, I would need to reorder infrequently. Bestseller lists and the popularity of books in any given locale are not always in synch, and it is up to the bookseller to know what is trending locally. Award winning children’s and young adult books are frequently popular with parents, not so much with the kids. But sometimes things sneak up on you. Last spring (2012), my attention started to focus on John Green when a young male high school student wanted to know when I was getting more copies of The Fault in Our Stars. I told him it was backordered, but I expected it soon. He asked to have a copy set aside, and left his phone number -- and called every day, or stopped in, until the book arrived, fortunately not a long wait. This is highly unusual behavior in young men of this age, and I was impressed. I also was alerted to how often I had reordered this book.
Soon, it was not just this latest release, but all of John Green’s books which were flying off the shelves. And rather than the normal pattern, where the demand for the latest Hunger Games or Twilight or Mortal Instruments or Vampire Diaries entry is highest on the release date, stays high for a few weeks, and gradually tapers off, the demand was increasing for the older books as well as the latest. These last few weeks, as the young people are enjoying reading what they want rather than what is required for school , have been a John Green bonanza in my shop, 1 ½ years after his most recent book was published. I haven’t seen the books on any local school summer reading lists, and there are no movies yet. The kids just want to read them.
Three of Green’s books are currently on the New York Times young adult bestseller list, the 2012 entry plus Looking for Alaska (2005) and Paper Towns (2008). His other two titles, An Abundance of Katherines (2006) and Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010, written with David Levithan) have floated on and off the list over the last several months. In my shop, they are all bestsellers, only surpassed by the Game of Thrones series. I had to know more about this author.
I learned that most of my young customers did not find out about John Green because his books won awards (an Edgar for Paper Towns), or because of traditional marketing methods, but because word spread about his YouTube channel, Crash Course. These are marvelous short lessons, mostly on literature and history. I was told by the younger generation to start with “How and Why We Read: Crash Couse English Literature #1.” I enjoyed it so much, this MA in English Literature may go back and re-educate herself just for the pleasure of watching these videos. They are snappy, entertaining, and make serious reading fun. Green also has a video blog with his brother Hank, Vlogbrothers. There is no particular format, and the two pretty much just enjoy themselves, but amid the laughter some serious points are made. A community of fans called “Nerdfighters” has formed, and there is a website dedicated to their use. New projects, videos, discussions, groups and forums entirely made by the VlogBrothers fan community are uploaded daily.
So the books must be silly, fun and easy to read, right? These buyers are the digital generation, they don’t take time for serious thought, don’t linger over the well-written sentence. They want graphics and action. They tried the books because the videos were so much fun. Well, The Fault in Our Stars is about two teenagers who meet in a support group for young people with terminal cancer. Looking For Alaska takes place at a boarding school, but it is much more than the romance at the center; questions of philosophy and life choices are explored without preaching. It is hard to explain the book without a spoiler, but it is definitely not light reading or another “coming of age” story. Paper Towns, the Edgar winner, involves not only the mystery of a missing girl, but the enigma that she is to her friends. These are books that present life realistically and convey the message that there are no easy answers.
The young people buying these books may have first come to them because of YouTube, but they are reading all of them, not just one, so if the books weren’t what they expected, they were something they wanted. Many more readers are now coming because of “word of mouth” on the books alone. Perhaps fatigue with dystopian futures, urban fantasies of demon-slayers, and romances with vampires and werewolves has finally set in. John Green’s books are about life as it is, not escapism. I am as encouraged by the popularity of these works as I was by the young woman who decided to try a classic this summer instead of her usual fare, and said of Wuthering Heights, “Wow, that woman could really write!”
It’s always pleasant for a bookseller to have at least one book or series that it is difficult to keep in stock, whether it be Hunger Games or Shades of Grey or Game of Thrones. But the John Green phenomenon has been particularly satisfying. Young people of both genders are reading the books. They are not afraid of difficult and painful topics. They are watching YouTube videos that discuss the classics in a delightful way, and are asked to read the books first. John Green has made serious reading appealing to a wide audience of teenagers, and I thank him.
The strategy just has to work with other populations also. Very interesting.
Posted by: Bill Thiele | July 14, 2013 at 02:18 PM