Freedom!!!!

As I reflect on the last two weeks of my life, I'm reminded of a line from Wordworth's Ode Intimations of Immortality: "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting." Only instead of "birth" it would be "starting the Twilight series." I feel like I've been submerged under a still pool of water, only vaguely aware of what was going on above the surface. But late Saturday night I emerged back into reality: "Hum, my bedroom is pretty messy--oh look, there's all the clean laundry from last week, I should put that away. Hum, I think I've eaten nothing but Doritos today. Hum, I'm speaking in Sacrament meeting tomorrow." I mean I've continued on with my life--going to work every day, attending parties, hosting FHE, etc but it was like a passing dream. Twilight pretty much took over my life.

So, how do I feel about the experience now that it is behind me?

At first, I was upset. I would tell people I was reading Twilight and many of them said that they never would, I would say "good idea. don't." But then, something strange happened during the second book--I realized it wasn't as bad as the first one. Then, eventually I decided it was pretty good. And finally I decided that I didn't hate/love it, I just loved it. I mean it's not like it's the best written thing ever, but it is FUN it is ENJOYABLE and it is addictive. Yes, the characters do stupid, unbelievable things. Yes, it requires a lot of suspended disbelief. But it is a compelling read. Interestingly enough, once I gave myself permission to just enjoy the books, the compulsive need to read read read was weakened significantly. Not to say that it stopped being my main focus in life. In fact, I would often say to anyone asking me any sort of question about my life: "I can't think about that until I'm done with Twilight."

So, now I'm done and can get on with my life. It was a little lonesome last night brushing my teeth without reading anything, but I trust that I will eventually shift back to normal.

My advise to others who are vaguely considering reading the Twilight series: Just do it. You'll have fun.


three of the four Twilight books, compared with the last book I read "East of Eden" (which despite being one of the best pieces of literature I've come across and, quite short in comparison, still took me almost a month to read)