I’ve been on a major reading kick. It started that week that Mikey had to travel for work. I had downloaded the Twilight series (Stephenie Meyer) thinking that I wasn’t sure that I would go with pop culture and like the books and also I just wanted to try out reading books on my iPhone. If I liked reading books on my iPhone then I might actually get to read more books than I normally do, just because I would have toilet reading material at my fingertips. Well, it turns out I didn’t mind reading on my iPhone and I became totally addicted to the Twilight series. Totally addicted…like heroin addicted…ok, maybe not that addicted, but close.
I thought the Twilight series would be similar to the Anne Rice Vampire books. I was sorely mistaken. I did love some of Anne Rice’s books, but after a while they all melded into the same story told a dozen different ways with different characters, but same general thesis to it. Not these books. First, it wasn’t overly graphic, it wasn’t very graphic at all as far as the Vampire stuff goes. If you don’t like Vampire stories, you’d probably be ok with reading this book, because it is nothing like normal Vampire stories. The entire series is an intense romance, but an innocent romance. You will not find anything that does not go along with Christian values, if you can look past the fact that the book has Vampires in it. The first book is like Pride and Prejudice, but Mr. Darcy is a teenage Vampire and Elizabeth Bennett is an awkward and severely uncoordinated teenage girl. In fact, the character Bella is one that most women who are really into books could relate to; just as women over the centuries could relate to Elizabeth Bennett. At times you hate Edward, just like you hated Mr. Darcy at first, but then when you loved Edward, he was infallible…a lot like Mr. Darcy. Stephenie Meyer actually based each of the books in the series off of one of the Romantic Classics. So, if your kids want to read this series, its ok to read it, if you can get past the fact that there are Vampires in the books.
As you can tell, I really loved reading these books and since Twilight was a series and I got so hooked into the books on my iPhone, I had to order the complete set in hardcover. This is kind of a book tradition of mine. If I like a series…A LOT…then I order the books in a nice hardcover set, because they last longer and they look good on the shelf. I did this with the Harry Potter series and I think I’ve read through that series about 5 times already, so it is worth the investment…especially if you buy the hardcovers cheap. Since the Twilight movie came out on DVD, all the books have been on sale at various establishments, but I found that Barnes and Noble had the best deal. I didn’t pay more than $13.00 a book and I got these Twilight prints (based on the book cover art) with quotes on them and they came in their own little box. If you’ve ever bought a hardcover full price, you know they can be as little as $25.00 or as much as $35.00+. I want nice hardcovers, but I am not paying the price of them.
So, anyhow, the books came in yesterday. I also got the other Stephenie Meyer book, The Host. Once I like an author, its pretty much all over, I’ll probably like most of the books they write. Exhibit A: Stephen King. I’ve got almost every book he has written and I only have about 10 that I haven’t read yet…and there are still more I want to read that I don’t have. So, yeah, I’m a hopeless case when I like an author.
Anyhow, once I read all the books, then I had to get the Twilight DVD, because I hadn’t seen the movie. The movie was pretty good, very close to the book, just a bit different. Let’s face it, not everything that is written in a book translates well on screen, so where it wouldn’t be translated well on screen, they cut it out. But still a very good movie. They casted the movie very well and watching the movie had the same effect as reading the book, in my opinion.
Ok, I got on a tangent there. So, anyhow, I am on a big reading kick. I’m now reading Angels & Demons. I bought the book in hardcover, on sale, a few years back, because I really enjoyed The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons is the predecessor to The Da Vinci Code. The time has come to get this book read. Tom Hanks is going to be in another Dan Brown inspired movie, Angels & Demons. I have a rule that if a movie comes out that is based on a book and I own the book, it has to be read before I see the movie. Some people are the opposite, but if I don’t read the book before I see the movie, I might not ever get to it.
Now I am inspired to find time to get through all those books on my shelf that I haven’t read and to re-read some of the ones I have.
So, here’s my book list, in alphabetical order, not in reading order:
295 days by James V. Patterson
1984 by George Orwell
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
Cannibal: The True Story Behind the Maneater of Rotenburg by Lois Jones
Cannibal Killers: The Real Life Flesh Eaters and Blood Drinkers by Peter Haining
Danse Macabre by Stephen King
The Dark Tower Book V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
The Dark Tower Book VI: Song of Susanah by Stephen King
The Dark Tower Book VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King
Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Eat Pray Loveby Elizabeth Gilbert
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Emma by Jane Austen
Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
From a Buick8 by Stephen King
The Green Mile by Stephen King
The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Instruction: Living the Life Your Soul Intended by Ainslie MacLeod
Just Keep Dancing by Susan Brauer
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Rings Book II: The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien
Lord of the Rings Book III: The Return of The King by J.R.R. Tolkien
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
On Writing by Stephen King
The Other Boleyn Girl
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice Continues: Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Stand by Stephen King
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Vesuvius Prophecy by Greg Cox
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
One last thought, anyone up for an online book club? Something easily done over Skype, on a semi-regular basis? If you see something on my book list that you like and want to read to, leave me a comment or send me an email and maybe we could do a bloggy book club!
June 8th, 2009 at 10:47 am
i became addicted to the ‘twilight’ series as well and was most definitely not expecting it. i was inbetween books and had a friend loan me her copy of the first book. i put it off until late one night and then ended up staying up all night to finish the book. it’s crazy the kind of stories that suck you in at times.