At first I wasn’t particularly interested in finding out why the Twilight series had become so popular. My coworker / officemate / lunchtime book club friend tried to coax me into reading the books, but I resisted and made fun of her for being captivated by teenage angst-ridden vampire love stories. I’m still not sure what eventually changed my mind, but after a while–I was way behind the times–I took the plunge.
Even when the teenage angst oozed from the pages, I was nonetheless captivated by the story because of its fresh take on vampire lore. I wound my way through the books, hiding the book jackets when I read during my lunch breaks and trying to avoid screaming masses of women who, when they saw me carrying the book tucked under my arm, would stampede me in their rush to profess their love for the series, for Edward, for Bella, for Taylor Lautner’s abs. (True story. I haven’t been inside a shopping mall since that fateful day.) I didn’t want people to one day spot me reading cheesy vampire mush and assume the wrong thing about me, so for several weeks I did everything short of carrying with me a sign reading “Don’t judge me for reading this. I ran like hell away from my teenage years, and I usually read more dignified books than this vampire smut.” (Like the Sookie Stackhouse series. *cough*)
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