Recommendations

Now commences the "Ellen-tells-all-you-avid-readers-what-she-likes-and-therefore-what-you-should-like" section of the blog.  However, I don't really like the word "Recommendations" just because it reminds me of the horrific time in my life that was applying to college, which I will say nothing about in this post because that will have to be a few chapters in my autobiography--another thing which no one will read.  SO, if you have any suggestions for the title of this section of my blog, please comment to suggest!  (I went to thesaurus and the only interesting one was "plug" and that doesn't even make sense).

...but I digress...

So I had a very long layover in Detroit on my way home from school a couple days ago (very nice airport, so it was all good.)  I stop in their mini Borders and begin browsing because, as previously stated, one of my goals for the summer is to read a lot.  By the way, I'm useless in a bookstore.  Ab.SO.lute.ly. Useless.  I'm incredibly picky when it comes to books.  The only genres that I find that I consistently like are autobiographies and a hybrid of science fiction, fantasy and romance...aka the Twilight saga.  I could do better with the dialogue of those books, but hey, they make me very happy :-9.  Anyway, I was browsing for about 20 minutes with no books in my hand (though I was extremely tempted by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) when one of the salesclerks came over and did the general "How are you doing?" routine.  She was a cute, short black girl with great curves and a very warm smile, which made me break my "professional"/New Yorker-i-ness.  She saw that I was in the fiction section, and asked if she could make a recommendation.  I was so relieved because I didn't even know where to look (I'm one of the bad ones that judges the cover...oops).  Let me just point out that this is the first time I've been in a commercial bookstore where the person not only truely helped me, but had actually seemed to have read some books.  I tipped her.  Another first for a bookstore.

THE POINT:  If you like the hybrid genre of sci-fi/fantasy/romance, then go read the "Sookie Stackhouse" series by Charlaine Harris.  It has very similar aspects to Twilight, but there are more books, the characters are more mature and it doesn't have hidden "moral messages" in it (i.e. None of the "why buy the cow" stuff).  While the names aren't as elegant or romantic (Sookie and Bill), you get over it pretty quickly.

Wow.  This post is a lot longer than intended.  Kudos if you got to the bottom!