The 'Twilight' Zone

First off, my apologies to my mother. Mom, I’m sorry. I spent the better part of the holidays making fun of your addiction to the Twilight book series. And, to all the other fans, you didn’t escape my snide remarks. I regretfully made fun of you behind your backs. I said things like, “Really? You’re serious? Isn’t that a book for pre-teens? How old are you?” Please accept my humble apology

I’m not a reader. I don’t read fiction, ever. I read faith-based books, and sometimes travel books, parenting books, business books, books from a biographical perspective and other non-fiction books. I have read some fiction, but mostly when it was a school assignment and even then, I can’t promise I didn’t use Cliffnotes. I can confidently say that I have rarely in my life met a fictional book that captivated my interest.

I thought the Twilight movie was kind of cute. A little low budget in parts, but still, a fun little story. When it came out on DVD I rented it to watch, again. It was at that point that I found myself thinking very seriously… what happens next? My mom refused to indulge my questions instructing me to simply “read the book!” I’ve heard that before. I ask after every Harry Potter movie and someone always responds in tempo. Feeling like I ‘had to know’, I considered buying the second book in the series, ‘New Moon’, with no other expectation of myself except to cheat a little and flip through to pages – not to actually read the book.

Visiting SoCal this past weekend for a wedding, I picked up the second book in the series at a store on Saturday and read the first chapter that night. By the time Sunday had ended I was done with the 600 pages. Monday, I bought ‘Eclipse’. I finished those almost 700 pages last night (Tuesday), and I even worked on Tuesday. I can’t guarantee that I won’t run out tonight and buy the last book in the series ‘Breaking Dawn’ and finish it by Friday. Do you see the wild transformation? (no pun intended)

What in the world is happening to me? I haven’t touched the laundry, our bags are still unpacked in the living room, I haven’t been making dinner, I sacrifice sleep, and I’m not even watching my favorite TV shows. I let my ice cream melt before I touched it the other night, and I will let myself get to the point that I’m almost doing the pee-pee dance before I’ll break myself away from a chapter. Every time I put the book down, I find my friends calling me back. “I’m coming, Jacob! I’m here to support you!”

As I jump into the final book, I am certain of two things once I am finished. The first is that housework, laundry, dishes and grocery shopping will need my attention. The second is that I will need access to a Twilight Saga addiction support group so that I can let go of Jacob, Bella, Edward, Alice, the Pack, and the Cullen Family. It’s healthier that way [if you could only see my downcast eyes...].

If a good thing could come out of this, it is clear that I have proved to myself that I could be a reader if I wanted to. That really is the shocker of all this. I would never have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself.