The Boyfriend List Page 19
This one involved wood veneer.
It was a random thing he found in the junk room of his office!
The best: There was a guy in college who later became my boyfriend. He graduated two or three years before me, and every now and then he used to just send me a letter, chatting about stuff. On my birthday one year, he sent me this tiny pin made out of a dead fish. It was a good-looking little fish, and it had been varnished or something, and mounted on a pin. I wouldn’t wear it now, but at the time it seemed hilarious and punk rock and pretty all at the same time. It was small and it was a surprise, and I could tell he’d thought about my taste (questionable as it may have been). It worked much better than a dozen roses.
Q. Ruby loves movies, and the novel has fun movie references sprinkled throughout. What is your all-time top ten movie list?
A. I can’t put them in order. Too stressful! But here’s the list:
Gregory’s Girl
Repo Man
Annie Hall
Grease
His Girl Friday
Bringing Up Baby
Cabaret
Moulin Rouge
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Singin’ in the Rain
Q. This is your first novel for teenagers. Was there anything surprising about the process of writing it? Did you learn anything new?
A. I had a terrific amount of fun writing this book, but writing it was not so different from writing for adults or for younger kids, both of which I’ve done. I just try to write the best story I can.
Q. What were your favorite books as a teenager? Did any books or writers influence you while you were writing this book?
A. I read all the great early young adult authors when I was twelve and thirteen: Paul Zindel, S. E. Hinton, Judy Blume, M. E. Kerr. But I was more of a drama girl in high school and didn’t read as much as I had in junior high. I fell back in love with books in college, reading great nineteenth-century novelists like Dickens, Austen, and the Brontës.
Writing The Boyfriend List, I was influenced by Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, which is about this guy who’s always making lists and mix tapes. He goes back and visits his major old girlfriends to try to figure out what went wrong with his current relationship. I loved Hornby’s book—it’s tremendously clever and engaging—but parts of it didn’t ring true for me. I thought there might be something fresh I could do with a similar concept.
Q. What is your writing process?
A. I write every weekday morning at my computer in my home office. A plump cat or two for company. More coffee than is good for me. I wear pajamas and look rather unattractive. I do not answer the phone, I do not clean the house, I check my e-mail only as a reward for doing my job. Sometimes I offer myself other ridiculous little rewards for writing—like: I can go out to the drugstore and buy toothpaste if I write two pages! It is borderline psychotic.
Q. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
A. Go to college. Read as many books as you can. Try to get an internship at a publishing house or magazine. And write. It is very easy to say you are a writer and not write. But if you actually write stuff—then you are a writer, whether published or not.
The Boy Book • E. Lockhart • 978-0-385-73208-6
It’s the beginning of Ruby Oliver’s junior year at Tate Prep, and things are not off to a good start. But the year turns out to be full of surprises—along with many difficult decisions—that help Ruby see that there is indeed life outside the Tate universe.
Fly on the Wall • E. Lockhart • 978-0-385-73281-9
At the Manhattan School for Art and Music, where everyone is “different” and everyone is “special,” Gretchen Yee feels ordinary. One day, Gretchen wishes she could be a fly on the wall in the boys’ locker room—just to learn more about guys. (What are they really like? What do they really talk about?) This is the story of how that wish comes true.
Not Like I’m Jealous or Anything: The Jealousy Book Edited by Marissa Walsh • 978-0-385-73317-5
We’ve all been there. We’ve all felt that pang. It’s hard to stop the green-eyed monster once it rears its ugly head. In this collection of short stories, essays, and one poem, thirteen writers share their visions of jealousy.
Girl, 15, Charming but Insane • Sue Limb 978-0-385-73215-4
With her hilariously active imagination, Jess Jordan has a tendency to complicate her life, but now, as she’s finally getting closer to her crush, she’s determined to keep things under control. Readers will fall in love with Sue Limb’s insanely optimistic heroine.
Counting Stars
David Almond
978-0-440-41826-9
With stories that shimmer and vibrate in the bright heat of memory, David Almond creates a glowing mosaic of his life growing up in a large, loving Catholic family in northeastern England.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Ann Brashares
978-0-385-73058-7
Over a few bags of cheese puffs, four girls decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The next morning, they say goodbye. And then the journey of the Pants, and the most memorable summer of their lives, begin.
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
Ann Brashares
978-0-385-73105-8
With a bit of last summer’s sand in the pockets, the Traveling Pants and the Sisterhood who wears them—Lena, Tibby, Bridget, and Carmen—embark on their second summer together.
Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood
Ann Brashares
978-0-385-72935-2
It’s the summer before the Sisterhood departs for college … their last real summer together before they head off to start their grown-up lives. It’s the time when they need the Pants the most.
Walking Naked
Alyssa Brugman
978-0-440-23832-4
Megan Tuw has always been popular. But when she’s thrown into detention with Perdita Wiguiggan, the most unpopular “freak” in school, Megan finds herself slowly drawn into an almost-friendship. Then Megan faces a choice: Perdita or the group?
Keeper of the Night
Kimberly Willis Holt
978-0-553-49441-9
Living on the island of Guam, a place lush with memories and tradition, young Isabel struggles to protect her family and cope with growing up after her mother’s suicide.
The Lightkeeper’s Daughter
Iain Lawrence
978-0-385-73127-0
Imagine growing up on a tiny island with no one but your family. For Squid McCrae, returning to the island after three years away unleashes a storm of bittersweet memories, revelations, and accusations surrounding her brother’s death.
Lord of the Nutcracker Men
Iain Lawrence
978-0-440-41812-2
In 1914, Johnny’s father leaves England to fight the Germans in France. With each carved wooden soldier he sends home, the brutality of war becomes more apparent. Soon Johnny fears that his war games foretell real battles and that he controls his father’s fate.
Gathering Blue
Lois Lowry
978-0-440-22949-0
Lamed and suddenly orphaned, Kira is mysteriously taken to live in the palatial Council Edifice, where she is expected to use her gifts as a weaver to do the bidding of the all-powerful Guardians.
The Giver
Lois Lowry
978-0-440-23768-6
Jonas’s world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices, until Jonas is given an opportunity that will change his world forever.
Harmony
Rita Murphy
978-0-440-22923-0
Power is coursing through Harmony—the power to affect the universe with her energy. This is a frightening gift for a girl who has always hated being different, and Harmony must decide whether to hide her abilities or embrace the consequences—good and bad—of her fu
ll strength.
Published by Delacorte Press
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2005 by E. Lockhart
All rights reserved.
Delacorte Press and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
www.randomhouse.com/teens
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this work as follows:
Lockhart, E.
The boyfriend list : (15 guys, 11 shrink appointments,
4 ceramic frogs and me, Ruby Oliver) / E. Lockhart.
p. cm.
Summary: A Seattle fifteen-year-old explains some of the reasons for her recent
panic attacks, including breaking up with her boyfriend, losing all her girlfriends,
tensions between her performance-artist mother and her father, and more.
[1. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 2. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction.
3. High schools—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction. 5. Friendship—Fiction.
6. Seattle (Wash.)—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.L79757Bo 2005
[Fic]—dc22
2004006691
eISBN: 978-0-307-51480-6
September 2006
v3.0
E. Lockhart, The Boyfriend List
(Series: # )
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