Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked

SO THIS WAS TOTALLY DUE YESTERDAY.
But I (obviously) didn't do it.
Why?  There are a few reasons.  One, I felt turrible, and I couldn't even think about looking at a computer screen for longer than I needed.  I'm actually in the middle of creating what I think is a Great Idea For A Book, and I would have loved to start outlining\drafting it up, but instead, I took a wicked long nap.  Like... wicked long.  As in I went to bed at about 9 pm (and that's being generous with my guess as to what time I really fell asleep).

The other reason I didn't write this yesterday?  There was this article in the NY Times (that I refuse to link to because I don't think it should receive more traffic) that said adults should only read books for adults and stop reading books written for and about teenagers.  It was poorly researched (as in the author panned The Hunger Games while admitting to not reading it nor will he ever read it because it's a "children's book") and openly snobby.

Sadly, though, it kind of worked as in I felt a little ashamed that I was about to defend this book.  BUT, whatever, I dealt with that, I've moved on, and now I'm here to defend myself for actually liking a book that I feel all of my YA Mafia friends will mock me about for a long, long time.



Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

First things first: I am not stating that I think this is a particularly great book.  In fact, I think it's the giant sore thumb of the entire Twilight "saga."  The first three novels fit together as a nice little trilogy with just a few strings left unresolved.  Those threads could have been resolved without going into this story, but I do understand it.  I would have left at least one Big Bad besides the Volturri to deal with in this one, but that's just me.

I've started and restarted this paragraph way too many times now, so I'm aware of how much I've overthinking this.  BUT, I'm also realizing that what I like about this book isn't the book itself, but more of the concept of it.  How Bella Swan goes from this wholly awkward weakling to a fully formed awesome vampire who can do awesome things and needs to do said awesome things in order to keep her family from being slaughtered by a group of really, really old guys.  I like the concept of Jacob & Bella being so drawn to one another because of the imprint in her DNA.  I like the concept of the Volturri wanting Edward and Alice and Bella, so they create a reason to come after them before they actually have a reason to come after them.

The problem is in the execution of these concepts.

HOWEVER, I'm here to talk about why I like this book rather than dislike it.  I think I give more credit to the concept than most because, again, this novel really falls short in the execution part of things.  When I first read these, my sister-in-law said that she felt this was the only book of the series that felt like a grown woman speaking rather than a teenager, and I see that, definitely.  Bella may be an "old soul," but she loses all bit of teenager in this story.

Ugh, I'm still not defending this, am I?

Alright, fine.  I can't.  I just like it.  I don't know why.  I like it more now that the movie made me laugh to the point of stomach hurt.  I REALLY like the fact that the second movie will give Lee Pace some work (OMG EYEBROWS).  I so get the reasons why people do not like this.  I'm just not one of those people.

Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore

Well, this should be fun.



Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (this image was intentionally chosen over the actual cover)

Let me first state that I actually still like the Twilight series.  It's basically my secret shame at this point, but there you have it.  I don't really feel like I'm allowed to openly like it anymore, though.  It seems like the uncool thing to do.  While I agree with so many arguments against this book (Bella is a terrible role model, the writing isn't great, Edward Cullen is a creepy stalker, Jacob Black's wig was atrocious), I cannot not like Twilight.  And here's why:

If it weren't for Twilight, I would not be reading any of the amazing books I've had the pleasure of reading these past few years.

When I first began these books, I was right in the middle of my Harry Potter readathons.  I didn't read anything else but that.  My (almost!) sister-in-law lent me the books, and I tore through them in a matter of days.  But something about the first book always stuck with me.  Reading it was like an awakening that I didn't know I needed.  There's a much longer version of this story that I won't really go into fully, but the gist is that becoming an adult is hard, and it's been hard on me personally because I tend to live inside my head a lot and internalize things too much and make myself batty-bat crazy.  I don't feel that a ton of people truly understand me, and I'm kind of weird, and it makes me withdraw and become a person that I don't always recognize.  So, while I was reading Twilight for the first time, I was reminded of my teenage self.  A girl who wore her weirdness proudly, who flaunted it out into the world much like those purple polyester pants she loved so much.  A girl who didn't really care whether people thought she was being odd or awkward or anything else besides herself, because to that girl, nothing was more honest than being yourself.  I came to realize that I really, really missed that girl.  And I didn't know why I felt I needed to change.  I'm me; deal with it.

AND THEN, the movies happened.  One fell swoop and a spider monkey later, Twilight went from being my blessed awakening to the eternal YA whipping boy.  Now that I'm much deeper into the YA world, I've found tons and tons of books that exceed how I felt about Twilight and that completely support my opinion that there's nothing more bad-ass than being yourself, but I still feel a bit of sadness when I think about what happened to this series.  Oh, Dead Diggory.  Oh, Kristen Stewart's One Expression.  Oh, Jasper's Phil Spector hair. How you've broken my sweet sweet heart.

(That broken heart didn't stop me from buying all the movies on DVD, though!  What has two thumbs, a funny voice, and loves cheesy awful movies?  Jessica BS!  Thank you, Dr. Kelso.)

"I've chosen my life- now I want to start living it."

I went to see Eclipse on the day it came out, at a theater in town.  This was kind of a gamble, considering that theaters here are not nice.  We do not have any nice stadium-seating, non-sticky-floor places to choose from here.  For that, you gotta drive to Richmond or Frederickburg.  Or possibly Culpeper...  Yet, even in those "nicer" theaters, we've had some issues before where there's been drunk 18-year-olds that snuck in a flask or a Twilight mom who got snippy with me and I almost had to go Wayne Brady on her.  On top of that, Eclipse was my #2 fave of the series after my first read-through, and I didn't want this to be all camped out and silly like Twilight the Movie aka Who Farted?

I shouldn't have worried.

The movie was pretty great, as far as Twilight movies go.  It was entertaining, it was suspenseful, it touched on the important parts of the plot and included some of my favorite parts of the book without messing them up.  In general, as I tweeted out that night, what has two thumbs and loves Eclipse?  This girl.

However, I said it about New Moon, and I'll say it again.  To me, these movies really force the Team Jacob mentality.  Personally, I'm a big fan of Edward Cullen.  I think he's an amazingly interesting character for our generation, and [yeah, this is dumb but meh] I also think he's kinda dreamy.  However, the more I seem to talk to people about this, the more I find that I'm kind of out here alone.  One of the arguments I hear is that Edward is too controlling and Jacob is so much sweeter, and my sister-in-law claims that she dislikes Edward more with each read.  Frankly, I find Jacob to be kind of a jerk.  He's pushy and arrogant (and 17, but still), and he irritates me.

The issue for me is that with each read, I find myself becoming more tired of Bella.  Why is she so helpless?  Why is she always crying and complaining?  Why is she always playing the victim?  Honey, do you SEE what you HAVE?  Good grief, it's annoying.

I've got to wrap this up, but in general, solid B+ to Eclipse the movie.  Better acting, better writing (somewhat...), better movie.  Now it's time to wait for the final installments and the "little teeth-baby."

In other news...

I'm knitting socks!  So far, I've done this.

That looks like the cuff of a sock, right?  I hope so :)  Once I get a little more done, I'll post updates.  However, it's the beginning of the Eclipse socks.  You can judge me all you want but a) I don't really care and b) you're just jealous because YOU want socks that look like the cover of a book written for 13 year old girls...