Twilight

Stephenie Meyer has me enthralled. Her debut offering, Twilight, is making me lose track of time, lose concentration on work and everything else that is happening in my life. I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I decided to buy the book. What caught my eye (as time and again what normally does) was the exquisite cover design of the book. Take a look, and tell me if you’d been able to resist.

My reactions from good books can be extreme. But that’s what a good book can do to me. It gets to the point where I’m totally obsessed with the story and all I want to do is immerse myself fully in it; eat, sleep, breathe, live in it. Preferably I won’t have to sleep so I can finish the entire book in one sitting. I don’t ever want to put it down or stop reading. I can forgo eating or sleeping, and if I could put down or put on hold everything else in my life just to read and finish the book, I would. It gets to the point I can’t even concentrate on work. All I can think of is the book. (Note to hubby: does this sound familiar to you?)

Twilight is about Bella, a new student at Forks, a small town. She is irrevocably drawn to and falls in love with the cryptic, mysterious and gorgeous Edward. By the time she finds out that he is really a vampire, she is in too deep, even though she knows that at any time should he lose control of his vampire instincts and his blood lust, she’s as good as dead.

Meyer’s writing is flawless. She blends fantasy and reality, making the premise of her plot so believable. The tension and chemistry between Edward and Bella palpitates so visibly I can see everything in my mind’s eye. I’d say more but my powers of description really are beyond putting into words at this time.

Just like Luna, this book has totally and completely taken over my attention. There are not many books that can do that to me. Maniac Magee was one of the first YA books that got to me the same way. E.L. Konigsberg’s The View from Saturday, Wendelin Van Draanen’s Flipped and Carl Hiaasen's
Hoot are the few that have had a profound impact on me. I’ve read all these titles more than once, some three or more times. These are the books that I can read over and over and over and over again without ever feeling like I’ve read them too many times or ever getting bored or fed up.

I suppose one of the reasons why Twilight is such a compelling read for me is because it has that element of “forbidenness” in it. Bella and Edward really shouldn’t be together: he’s vampire and she’s human. What good could come out of it? Is there hope for them to be together? What’s to stop the situation from spiraling into the pits? But then I suppose that - and I am loathe to admit this - the romantic in me is sure that things will somehow work out.

I’ve always been attracted to what is “not good for me” or to people and things that I really shouldn’t be attracted to. It’s that “bad girl” complex that I have nurtured somewhere in that demented corner of my mind. Which would largely explain why I ended up dating my then-boyfriend (the now-hubby) back in college. There was an element of “wrong” about it. Wrong not because I thought it was wrong (nothing wrong in dating someone from a different race, I’m not THAT much of a racist) but wrong because I knew my parents (and probably most of the Chinese community) would frown on it. So I went ahead anyway. Besides he was a very nice guy and had the most gorgeous eyes of anyone that I knew. I had to be big enough and open enough to try this right? If things didn't work out, then at least I can tell people I dated someone from a different race. Well, look where I ended up.

It’s the same when someone tells me I shouldn’t do something. All the more I want to do it if you tell me not to. It’s that idiotic, stubborn streak. And it’s also testing the boundaries of limit. My own as well as every one else’s. Every now and then, I have this urge to see how far I can go and what limits I would go to. Which gets me worried because I never know when I have the urge to go do something stupid. And if I will do it. And then only think of consequences after the fact.

But I digress, back to the book…

I brought Twilight with me to work today. No, I did not read it at work. I had client visits to attend to and other matters at the office to look into. I left Twilight in the car. But I did take most of the surface roads while I was driving and made sure there were lots of stoplights wherever I went so I could take the opportunity to catch up on Bella and Edward. I even blew off my lunch appointment so I could sit quietly at Starbucks and read.

I am totally obsessed.

And then I get onto Amazon and find out that Meyer is writing the sequels to Twilight!! Oh glory be!!! Their story doesn’t end! I just hope that my expectations will soar only to be gunned down and that the sequels don’t disappoint.

That’s it. Enough distractions for now. I must get back to Bella and Edward…