Twilight Wednesday

At the moment, I'm convinced that every blog has at least one post on The Twilight Series. At least one post on how dazzling Edward is, or how addictive the series is. Since I read the books a good nine months ago (with the exception of the fourth installment), I feel slightly out of the loop. So I've decided to participate.

Quite simply, the books were addictive. Very addictive.

I read the first book, Twlight back in February (review here) and fell in love. It was recommended to me by Megan and I promptly recommended it to all of my friends. Like many before me, I too adored Edward and wanted to be Bella. Actually, I retract that. I wanted to be Alice - I favor her character much more. She's more interesting. Around then I cut my hair short and modeled it after an early production photo of the girl playing Alice. The girls at the salon had no clue what movie I was talking about.

I read New Moon literally two days later (review here). I stayed up until 3 a.m. to finish the first book, yes, I was that addicted. Since I wasn't completely pleased with the ending, I had to start on the second book immediately. At first, I didn't enjoy it as much. It was hard for me to read it, having gone through a break up recently. I compared myself way too much to Bella. Also, Edward was gone and some kid named Jacob appeared. I didn't care about Jacob, I wanted to be dazzled. But still, the ending was terribly addictive. And even though Bella was, well, annoying, I was pleased. I was also upset that I didn't visit Volterra while in Italy. (Upon reading it a second time, I thought it was much better.)

Eclipse came next (review!); it was fast paced and covered quite a bit. I really enjoyed it. I loved the climatic scene and the romance element was incredibly swoon worthy. By this time my friends started reading the books and catching on. As they became more attached, I reveled in what I started. I read the extra scenes and information (but not Midnight Sun because, really, I didn't want to read 500 pages online). I wrote a fake essay inspired by A New Dawn, entitled "Why Stephanie Meyer Sets Unreal Expectations When it Comes to Love; Or, Why Isn't My Boyfriend Edward Cullen?" I researched the film. And then, slowly, I lost interest...

...until Breaking Dawn so many months later (last review!) The book came out while I was at a wedding in Atlanta, so I wasn't able to get it until driving home that Sunday. Obviously, I stopped in the middle of the eight hour drive. I didn't want to get home without my characters. What intrigued me most about this book was how it played out. Jokingly, before it was published, I made a ridiculous prediction on what might happened. It. All. Happened. I called my friend Katie half way through and proceeded to laugh and laugh for hours. Admittedly, I didn't enjoy the parts where Jacob narrated. I thought they were out of place and mostly boring. But I did love the last section. It might not have been a perfect book, but it had my characters and that made me happy.

Once reading that I, again, lost interest. And now the movie is coming out.

I know it's shocking, but I'm only somewhat excited about the movie. Judging by previews, it only looks...okay. Sure, some scenes look interesting and I'm sure I'll enjoy it, but really, it looks overdone. Of course I'll still see it opening night with my friends, still swoon and reminisce about the scenes, but I think, like most times, I'll favor the books. It looks overworked.

Megan recently started the Southern Vampire Mysteries (in which the HBO show Tru Blood is based on) and we've made some miraculous discoveries. These books were published years before Twilight and hold some very interesting comparisons. Vampire boy loves human girl. Human girl has a best friend/lover who is a werewolf. She has a non-human ability. Vampire boy is dazzling. We like pointing out the similarities.

Nowadays I don't talk about Edward and Bella often. Like an ex-boyfriend he's still around though. Megan and I will bring him up randomly, mostly in comparison. When Jeff and Hunter leave their dishes in the sink, we'll mockingly taunt them.

"Edward would never leave dirty dishes in the sink. He always cleans up after himself. And he makes a killer pot roast!"