Sunday, October 19, 2008

I am attracted to a fictional vampire

I love to read. I always have. As a kid, I used to read ALL the time. I would curl up in this old rocking chair overlooking the stairs and devour novels. There's nothing liking cracking open a brand new book. The crisp pages, the smell of fresh ink, a whole new story waiting to be read. Getting lost in a good book is one of my favorite things to do.

A few weeks ago, I was running out of books to read. I had been reading lots of chick lit and Philippa Gregory books and while I love the adventures of Becky Bloomwood and the love affairs of Queen Elizabeth, I was looking for something new. So I asked my friend, who loves reading even more than I do, for advice and this is how our (abridged) gchat convo went:

P: i need new books to read. any suggestions?

A: read the twilight series!
i bet you would like it
it's getting me through harry potter not coming out in november
because they made it into a movie
and the first one is coming out in november
the the guy who plays "edward" is HOT

P: oh yeah!
they're good?

A: well

P: what are the names of the books?

A: it's not that they're really that good...
it's that they suck you in
because there are four of them

A: mostly i find bella annoying (she's the main character)
but i love edward
dreamy

P: ohhh
good, ill read them
how long are the books?
i miss harry potter
it ended so well

A: i know
and this one is just getting insane
i'm on the fourth
literally i've read them all in the past two weeks

She went on to tell me the basic story line of the series and I was very intrigued. Even though it's about vampires which I've never really cared for...probably because I had a children's version of Dracula when I was 8 and was so scared of it that I hid it in my brother's room. I honestly believed Dracula was going to come out of the book and bite me in my sleep. Yes, I have an overactive imagination.

So the next week, I headed over to Border's to pick up Twilight and another book I wanted to read, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. As I walked up to the Twilight book display and saw the large "YOUNG ADULT" sign, I almost changed my mind. I was really embarrassed to buy a teen book. I kind of wandered around the store a bit until I realized I was being stupid. I swallowed my silly 23-year-old pride and finally bought it.

I was really excited to read it, but I decided to read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle first. It was a great book...very interesting, intriguing characters, exciting story...until the very end. I hated the ending. So much so that I was in a terrible mood for the entire day after I finished it.

And then I started Twilight and I was hooked. I literally could not put the book down. I started it on the bus to work on Wednesday (and yes, I took the book jacket off) and was so sucked in that I snuck pages throughout the day, spent my whole lunch hour at my desk reading and then read from the time I got home to the time I went to bed. The same went for Thursday and I finished it right after work. I was obsessed. All I could think about was Edward and Bella and what would happen. It was exactly as my friend described it...I just couldn't stop reading!

It's not that the writing is great at all...you can tell it's written for teens. And I can't stand the constant use of the word "chuckle". And Edward seems to laugh and chuckle quite a bit. The relationship between Edward and Bella really does seem a bit abusive (obviously), but the story just sucks you in. It's kind of ridiculous. Edward seems so smoldering and handsome. Stephenie Meyer does an excellent job of making him sound HOT and totally swoon-worthy. I find myself attracted to a fictional vampire. Wow, that's a sentence I never thought I would ever write.

So after my relaxing Friday night, I woke up early on Saturday and went straight to Border's to buy New Moon. I was only able to read the first few chapters because I was really busy the rest of the weekend but now that I'm finally home I can't wait to read more. Even as I'm writing this I see it sitting on my table and I'm dying to read it...

Ok I can't resist the urge any more...I'm off to read more of this amazing vampire-y saga. Goodnight!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You already know of my Edward Cullen crush. Swoooon!

Anonymous said...

I read them all this summer. The first one sucked me in (hah), but I have to confess that I can't stand Bella and...please don't shoot me...I don't like Edward at all! Still, I read them all anyway, so I can't hate them that much! :)

I just bought Edward Sawtelle, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

P said...

I LOVE falling in love with fictional characters! Definitely think I'm gonna have to read these books because so many people in the blogosphere have spoken of falling for this Edward dude!