Carrie’s Guest Post – James Dashner and the Male Reader

The Maze Runner by James Dashner was one of the first YA ARCs I ever received. I loved the premise, and absolutely devoured the book. In some ways, it reminded me of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, with one major difference: this book is definitely geared more toward male readers.

Because I'm the mother of three boys, I love finding books that I know will appeal to them. Now, my boys aren't quite old enough to read The Maze Runner yet, but I tested my hypothesis that guys would love this book on three of the men in my life, and was I ever right!

1. I passed the book on to my dad. My dad is a fellow science fiction fan, and when I handed it to him, he read it even more quickly than I did. His only complaint was how long we have to wait for book two.

2. Next came the real test - my husband. My husband had never read a science fiction novel. He likes sci-fi movies, but has only become a reader in the past year and a half. Before that, he was lucky to finish one or two books a year. Then he discovered reading e-books on his Palm, and since he's a techy-geek, it just clicked. Last year he read over a dozen books - all westerns. But I knew if he would just give The Maze Runner a try, he would love it. (On a side note, why is it that lots of blog readers willingly take my book recommendations, but getting my husband to read a book I love is like pulling teeth?) After a lot of nagging - and hearing my dad rave about it - he decided to give it a try. He read it faster than he's ever read a book. I will say, though, that he was completely ticked off at me when he realized it ended on a cliff-hanger and book two isn't out until later this year.

3. Test subject three was my best friend's husband. He's a reader, but a picky reader - he only finishes about half of the books he starts. The Maze Runner didn't let me down - he loved it, and asked for some more recommendations. I loaned him my copy of The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness to tide him over while we all wait anxiously for the release of The Scorch Trials, book two in the Maze Runner trilogy.

You can visit Carrie on her blog and follow her on twitter. And you should, cause basically she’s awesome. And she seems to like me. But don’t hold that against her.

Thank you Carrie for working on this post after a special request from me! I love people who bend to my will!