Book Categorization is a Strange Beast

I find it interesting how libraries categorize their books.  For instance, the library here has Harry Potter books in the young adult section.  They might have them in the kid section too, I didn't check.  In this case, I like this categorization because during my senior year I decided to reread them all, but I only owned the last two.  I hated going to the children section to get them, because the parents always looked at me like I was going to kidnap their kids.  (For the record, while kids are adorable, I would never kidnap one.  Mostly because its wrong, but also because I really do not want to raise one.)

However, the first time I went to this library, I was really just seeing what would catch my eye.  I found a few books when I decided to see if they had some Terry Pratchett.  Pratchett has been my favorite adult writer ever since Charlie lent me Good Omens (co-written with Neil Gaiman) and Going Postal.  Sadly, Mr. Pratchett's books were no where to be found which I quickly decided was a great disservice to the entire state of Utah.

Over spring break I ran out of books and decided to see if the library had a few that I had wanted to read.  They didn't.  Apparently to rub salt in my wound, I decided to look up Pratchett on the online catalog.  To my utter surprise, a couple pages of results sprang up.  I sat in shock.  Where had all these books disappeared to?  I knew the alphabet.  I knew where he should have been on the shelves.  I knew none of his books had been there.  So why was this computer trying to torture me into thinking they had his books when they in fact did not?

On closer inspection, this was because, according to the library, Terry Pratchett was a young adult novelist.

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Remember when I said he was my favorite adult novelist?  Yeah, that's because every other library and book store I've been to has his books with other adult books (with the exception of The Wee Free Men, but that's because it actually is for teens).  His writing style is just not YA.  Teen lit is fast paced, where Pratchett has a style that almost meanders.  Also, YA is characterized by mostly first person narration, while he prefers to write third person omniscient. Young adult focuses on one teen character and their development, side characters are few in number, and adults are even more sparse.  Pratchett's characters are  every age, occasionally animal, and sometimes ambiguous (DEATH has his own book and pops up from time to time.)  Also, have you ever heard of young adult satire?  After consulting with Google., that would be no.