A Man Like Edward

I will admit that until tonight I had never seen any of the "Twilight" movies. I'm not really one to go to midnight showings of the latest flick and really don't want to sit in a theatre full of screaming teenage girls, even though I used to be one myself. I love the Harry Potter books and movies, but I have never been to a midnight release of those books and/or movies either. I didn't think I really wanted to see another "vampire" movie and thought Kristen Stewart basically had only one facial expression--bored teenager-- whether in the movies or in interviews I've seen on TV. I also believed that I would never see Robert Pattinson as anyone other than Cedric Diggory from the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie.

I have friends on Facebook who were planning on taking daughters, nieces and friends to the latest midnight release of the latest "Twilight" saga on Wednesday evening. I couldn't understand why they would subject themselves to that, especially if they had to work the next morning. But I can now, sort of, see where they are coming from.

Edward Cullen is an interesting character and a man we all would love to have in our lives. Whether teenager or older woman. He has good looks, a loving family that would accept us for who we are, he's polite to fathers, he can play sports, he is intelligent, he never sleeps, he drives a whole bunch of neat cars, he plays the piano, he lets us dance on his feet, he can take us to places we've never been before, and he watches over us as we sleep yet he cannot read our minds so he's never going to figure out what we're really thinking. Plus he will fight to keep us alive at any cost. He wants nothing more than to protect us. On the downside, he's got cold skin, and he is a bit moody and could kill us at any moment. I also think it would be tough for him to stay in one place for very long. I mean, he can't keep going to high school in the same town for years and years. I did really like the clever artwork in the house where they had a whole bunch of graduation caps.

The first movie was good. Took a little to get into, but once the action started I thought it was interesting and had some good plot twists. I almost hate to admit that I'd actually like to see the next two movies. I'd also like to read the books.

Those of you who have already seen all the movies or read the books please don't ruin it for me. I want to decide for myself if I should be on Team Edward or Team Jacob. Right now though, Edward looks pretty good to me.

Throwing in the Towel

Ok, that's it. I quit. My literary pursuit of the 100 most notable books of 2009 by The New York Times is over. I know I only read 10 books, but I only enjoyed one of them so I figured it was best to move on to books I do like. Now I'm not saying The New York Times doesn't know what it's talking about, and I'm sure the books all had their merits, but they just weren't my kind of reading. The last book, "Love and Summer" was hard to follow, didn't really have much of a story, and left you with characters who had unresolved issues/lives. One passage in the book did make me cry, but that was the passage about an old dog passing away. It was probably the best written passage in the whole book and that's not saying much. I think my tears were more due to the fact that I'm an animal lover, rather than the beauty of the writing.

So without further ado, I am now reading Jasper Fforde's latest book "Shades of Grey." I love Jasper Fforde. He has written a series of novels called the Thursday Next books which involve a woman who travels through time and helps various literary characters. It's part mystery, part comedy and is absolutely perfect for those of us who were English majors in college. If you haven't read some of the great novels of our time, you won't get it. "Shades of Grey" is a different novel, this is about people who live in a world of colors and their society is based on their colors. The main character, Eddie Russett is a "red" who is supposed to marry another "red" but then falls in love with a "grey" woman who threatens to break his jaw the first time she meets him. I am thoroughly enjoying this book and was laughing out loud just by reading the table of contents. I'm only a quarter of the way through the book, so I can't give a full review yet but I know I will enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed Fforde's other novels.

Yes, a part of me feels bad that I didn't make my goal. I didn't even come close to reading two books a week. And I even feel guilty about giving up, and perhaps there are some books on that list that I am truly missing out on. But as I believe I have mentioned before, I love reading, it is a great joy, a great escape, a great way for me to spend my time, and I simply wasn't enjoying the books I was reading. Reading shouldn't be a chore and that's what it felt like it had become.

So I'm happier and believe it or not, will probably get a lot more books read than I had originally planned.