Sorcery and Reading Level
Apr. 11th, 2007 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adrian_turtleI know many of you have read both books: do you think _Sorcery and Cecelia_ is written at the same level of difficulty as _The Grand Tour_, or is it easier? Both are nominally YA, but some YA is for 9-year-olds, and some is for 14. I'm asking about how difficult the sentences and paragraphs are to understand, and the complexity of the plot. A book can edge towards the adult side of YA in how it deals with brutality or ethical complexity, but that's a very different thing.
My memory is slowing down, and I have trouble finding words. That's been a problem for years, though it's not really a measurable problem yet. There are a lot of things I try to read and just can't understand...my mind skitters off the surface and I can't get it to make any sense. It's often hard to tell if I'm looking at something that's very confusing (or even intrinsically nonsense), or if I could have understood it easily last year or ten years ago. I am becoming uncomfortably familiar with the difference between "I don't like this" and "I'm uncomfortable because I don't understand this." The latter situation is complicated, in principle, because who knows if I would like it or not if I understood it...but I mostly try to reserve judgement.
I loved _Sorcery and Cecelia_ when Stephen read it to me. I expected _The Grand Tour_ to be as easy and pleasant, though some of you have said it wasn't as much fun. I'm having a very hard time with it. I'm frustrated by not being able to follow the plot -- it's not just that I don't know what anyone is going to do next, but I can't even keep track of what they just did, or who was angry at whom when the roof fell in. Clearly, I need simpler books. I'm just wondering if I should be looking for simpler books LIKE _Sorcery and Cecelia_, or simpler books THAN _Sorcery and Cecelia_.
My memory is slowing down, and I have trouble finding words. That's been a problem for years, though it's not really a measurable problem yet. There are a lot of things I try to read and just can't understand...my mind skitters off the surface and I can't get it to make any sense. It's often hard to tell if I'm looking at something that's very confusing (or even intrinsically nonsense), or if I could have understood it easily last year or ten years ago. I am becoming uncomfortably familiar with the difference between "I don't like this" and "I'm uncomfortable because I don't understand this." The latter situation is complicated, in principle, because who knows if I would like it or not if I understood it...but I mostly try to reserve judgement.
I loved _Sorcery and Cecelia_ when Stephen read it to me. I expected _The Grand Tour_ to be as easy and pleasant, though some of you have said it wasn't as much fun. I'm having a very hard time with it. I'm frustrated by not being able to follow the plot -- it's not just that I don't know what anyone is going to do next, but I can't even keep track of what they just did, or who was angry at whom when the roof fell in. Clearly, I need simpler books. I'm just wondering if I should be looking for simpler books LIKE _Sorcery and Cecelia_, or simpler books THAN _Sorcery and Cecelia_.
