International YA Blogger Celebration: Mya from Pakistan

Name: Mya
Country: Pakistan
Blog: Dissecting Perfection

Your Favourite YA title: It's excessively optimistic of you to suggest that I would be able to pick one! Okay, I guess if I had to pick my favorites from THIS YEAR
ALONE, I'd go with Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell (GHOSTS!), The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (ZOMBIES!), Fade by Lisa McMann (DREAMCATCHERS!), Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty (MARCUS FLUTIE!), and If I Stay by Gayle Forman (... SHEER AWESOME!).
Favourite New Find: I just devoured Rampant by Diana Peterfreund in one sitting. Though... does it count as a new find if I've been foaming at the mouth since I first heard of it?
Bookstore of Choice: Variety Books and The Last Word in Lahore; Saeed Book Bank in Islamabad, Liberty Books in Karachi... books are pretty much all I shop for when I'm traveling so my loyalties are evenly spread out.
Author blog you are most likely to be found stalking: Do the Tenners count? No? Okay, then. Maureen Johnson.

Book Blogging from Pakistan
Best things about being from Pakistan:
The shopping, the cricket, the music and the food! Absolutely matchless.

What is the state of YA literature in Pakistan?

Sadly, it's pretty nonexistent. There's not one local author catering to the strictly YA crowd, though there's a vast number of them that write for the older, more serious, more disillusioned crowd. Which is nice, but why not ease the young'uns into it? Sure, we get a bunch of popular international YA titles, but it's hard to get people interested in something they might never be able to relate to on a cultural/personal level. It's not like the average Pakistani teen deals with publicly dating, proms, alcoholism, or much of the normal lifestyle that these novels depict on a daily basis.

How accessible are international YA titles in Pakistan:
Usually? Not accessible at all. That's mostly because there isn't much awareness for YA titles out here. I personally have them shipped to my bookstore (on special order, and only if they can find it elsewhere in Asia/feel helpful), pay the exorbitant shipping fee for Amazon (even the BookDepository.com doesn't deliver to Pakistan), buy the e-books from BooksonBoard.com (the fastest possible way to read, especially for new releases within a series that I can't wait to get my hands on), or in very rare cases, have the author or the publisher send me a copy. Those are the best, of course, but it's a lot harder to make contacts willing to ship out here.

Authors that you would recommend:
Diana Peterfreund, because the Secret Society Girl series is to date my favorite series of all time, and Rampant - the first in what promises to be a breathtaking killer unicorn series - is just plain fantastic. And Lisa McMann, because the Dreamcatcher series is sublime. Oh, and Sarah Dessen. Because... duh.

Most popular YA author in Pakistan:
Only the international bestsellers, really. Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, J K Rowling and Christopher Paolini sort of win the pool here.

Best thing about YA blogging:
The community! The interacting with authors! The collective squee-ing over covers, new releases, movie news, etc! The spontaneous rioting/indignation! There's no place on earth quite like the YA blogosphere, truly.

YA blogs that you would recommend from your Pakistan:
Are there any others? I'd love to hear from them!

Thanks Mya! We finish up tomorrow with the fantastically Frenetic Reader, Khy!