Reading

A looong time ago, I posted about starting to read the Twilight books. With the release of the movie approaching, I thought I should mention that I actually finished all four of them about a month after I started reading. I promised that I would let you know what I thought, but I ended up being fairly disenchanted by them, so I neglected to mention them any further. It’s not that I didn’t like the series—if anything it was a very fun read and a good distraction. Nothing too heavy (or realistic for that matter) and a little silly. I kept having to take silliness breaks. Like, that’s not really happening is it? She’s not really going there, right? She can’t be serious, can she? But, of course, the answer was always yes, and it really was that silly.

With some incredulity, I waded through all four. I did not become seduced by Edward, but I found Jacob to be quite attractive—what can I say? I like big, broad-shouldered guys with inordinate facial hair (love you babe.)

I think the biggest disappointment was Bella. She had the opportunity to be such a strong character, but ended up a little flat for me. I felt like her entire self-worth was based on a pattern of male affection, either from Edward or Jacob, and it was more than slightly off-putting for this Gender Studies thesis minor.

One thing I did love about reading Twilight, though, was that it reminded me how much I adore reading. I mainly read magazines now (which I love, love, love) because I don’t feel like I have time to sit down with a whole story, but I’ve been making time lately, and it feels good. After a couple other wholly unsatisfying book reads between Twilight and today, I finally finished a very good one last night: The Book Thief. Amazing. Read it. Thank you Markus Zusak, for restoring my faith in good writing, and my re-found desire to read more, more, more.