Guilty Pleasure: The Twilight Saga

As I mentioned before, I can often become overly enthusiastic about the things I like. The Twilight Saga is a bit of an anomaly that has a place on the "list of things I love". I love to read, and I especially love getting into a series. I absolutely adore putting down a book and knowing that the story is not over, that I've got at least several more hundreds of pages to get to know the characters, and for the story to become increasingly complicated. I love sitting down and re-reading a Harry Potter, knowing that I'm going to get more out of the story each time I pick up the book. Also, I have a terrible memory, so finding a series of books I love means I get to enjoy them almost as much the second time around. (B likes to watch movies more than once, which works out well for me because I almost never remember how a movie ends!)

Another series that I've gotten into is Philippa Gregory's books on the Tudors (best known for The Other Boleyn Girl), starting with The Constant Princess, and seemingly neverending. It's not a series in the traditional sense of the word, since each novel focuses on a different character. The first is about Catherine of Aragon, then the Other Boleyn Girl is about Ann and Mary Boleyn, and the third (The Boleyn Inheritance) is divided between three characters: Anne of Cleves, Jane Boleyn (George's wife) and Catherine Howard. There are quite a few others, but my favorites are the first three. Although these books border on entering the Romance Novel genre, they are very well written in the style of the period. I've also read a few of the True Blood books, but stopped after the third in the series because... well, there was a bit too much fetishy sex in there for my taste.

Twilight, on the other hand, holds a higher than I'd like position on my list of books I often return to. I have a strong love/hate relationship with those books. The writing is... horrendous. I hate to read a book knowing I could have written it better - if I had just had Stephanie Meyer right next to me. While I read (and re-read) I am constantly skipping portions because they are just so annoying. I also hate how Bella is so fragile and that she doesn't seem to have any personality on her own, and is just all around a bad female role model for the age group this series is intended for. I'm much more inclined to encourage my pre-teen/teen daughter to aspire to become a Hermione rather than a Bella. But boy, do I get sucked into that darn story. Despite not really knowing why Edward loves Bella so much, I'm definitely a sucker for Edward. I love the stories of how each Cullen becomes a Vampire (something I wish she would have expanded on), the different "powers" they have, and I love all the secondary Vampire characters who come in on the final book. And the Volturi, I love them.

With the first Breaking Dawn movie coming out in a couple of weeks, I've been thinking about picking that final book up again to remember the story. Luckily, I could read it in an afternoon since I skip so much of it!