Twi-hard

A cultural phenomenon. A world-wide bestseller. An obsession of teen girls and their moms. Have I mentioned I am obsessed with Twilight? It all began last October. A friend who I love anyway but love a hundred times more for telling me to run to the bookstore and buy this book, gave me the best book recommendation of a lifetime. The guy I bought it from at Barnes and Noble - I will never forget this - emphatically told me it's his favorite book and he can't wait until he has another day off so he can read it again. Man, I thought, this book has to be something special.

It is. I read Twilight. Then New Moon. Then Eclipse. Fell in love with Edward as we all do, wishing desperately for him to be real. I made connections between the story and my real life. The biggest one being that I had found new love recently, and sometimes pictured my BF in Edward's role (shh I never told him that part). I fell in love with reading in a way I had forgotten about, that I hadn't experienced since I was in elementary school. I always felt that my high school experience, as valuable as it was, turned me off from reading, since I avoided the hundreds of boring pages we had for homework every night. If Edward Cullen had been infused in my AP Art History reading, you bet I would have read every night.

I love everything about the books. The fast read; the characters; the relatability of the heroine; the villains; the duplicity of the two alpha males and the devotion they show for Bella; the connections to great literature (Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights); the way Stephenie gives you perfect visuals with simple, non-flowery or pretentious language; the way it makes us feel nostalgia for our first love... oh my gosh I could go on and on.

And the movie. Oh the movie. As much as the movie isn't perfect, I overall was pleased with the depiction. In re-reading the book, I know there are parts that were inexplicably changed or ommitted. Of course, they can't include everything. But after my third time seeing it (I know...) I love it more and more each time. I think the reason is the movie gives perfect visuals of almost exactly what I had in my head. And seeing my beloved characters onscreen makes them feel real. The more I watch the more I believe in the character portrayals. I love that the movie starts and ends, and starts right back up again when you go the next time. After finishing Breaking Dawn, it felt so devastatingly sad to be done with the story, it's nice to be able to relive the first chapter again and again.

So there is my babble about Twilight for today. I have so much more to say about it, but no one would ever want to read it all in one sitting. So therefore I will space it out.

And now back to my book...