Guilty Pleasures

I'm borrowing the title of another blog post because it accurately depicts my post today:  the guilty pleasure of the TWILIGHT series.

Never have I experienced such a universal obsession with a piece of literature as I have with this book series. (OK, I use the term "literature" loosely, but you know what I mean.)  No matter where I go, I find women of all ages -- from 12 to 90 -- under the "Twilight" spell.  All I have to do is flash the cover of any one of the four books from the series and I get a smile of recognition   from total strangers confirming that they are part of the same cult.  We all love it and have no intention of leaving it!

While it's interesting that one of the main characters is a "good" vampire and another is a "good" werewolf, that's not what has sucked me in.  It's the compelling love story between Bella and Edward that keeps me turning the pages way past midnight.  The first time I read the series, I devoured every page quickly and obsessively, hungry to read more about the perfect man and the woman he loved.  It only took 20 days to read all four novels -- quite an accomplishment for someone who typically falls asleep after reading three pages of anything.  This time around it's different.  Now that I'm re-reading the books in preparation for the debut of New Moon, I'm taking it much slower in order to savour every word, stroke of the cheek, and breathless kiss.  Sigh.  I admit it -- I'm in love with these books.

So it is with great anticipation that I wait for the debut of New Moon in 7 days, 11 hours and 20-some minutes.  To properly prepare for the movie, all the other "cool moms" in my neighborhood are gathering at my house for a "Twilight Double Header" -- watching Twilight on DVD at my house and then going to the theater for the midnight show.  Can't think of a better way to spend an evening.

Thank you Stephenie Meyer for giving me and millions of other women the gift of Edward, Jacob and Bella.  Now, what can we do to convince you to finish "Midnight Sun?"