A Public Confession

Just before Fall Break my daughter brought home a copy of Twilight that she had checked out of the school library to read. One of her classmates is "infected with it," as Bronwyn says. Maybe some of you will agree that "infected" is an apt description. I hadn't read it because I have a personal quirk against reading anything that is wildly popular -- never read any John Grisham or Dan Brown books (aside from The Davinci Code, which I read before it was a big deal. I started Angels and Demons, but didn't finish because I didn't like his decidedly hostile attitude towards the Catholic Church...and I thought it was gruesome, and I have no desire to read anything else of his) or Mitch Albom, for example. I don't think it's because I feel any particular intellectual snobbery. I think it's more that I'm just not a bandwagon sort of person. ANYWAY. I hadn't read the Twilight series because I figured it was all for swooning teenagers. I teach some students who LOVE the books and the music and they all want to learn to play it. They are wonderful kids and good students. But I just figured ... not for me. However, I wanted to know what Bronwyn was reading and if it was something appropriate for her age. I knew it was about vampires and teenagers, but that doesn't mean it's quite right for a third grade girl. Even if her classmate loved it.

So I read it. And then borrowed the next three books from my sister Heather. And read those. In three days. And I watched the movie. And now I'm trolling the internet looking for cast interviews and fan sites. I found Stephenie Meyer's website with a few chapters of a book called Midnight Sun, which is Twilight from Edward's perspective. Read that too. And really liked it. It turns out there's a whole website for Twilight Moms... more "mature" women who've been caught up in the series. Since I'm confessing, I'm going to "out" my son as well. Owen read the last three books too. He says "there's too much kissing and he was only reading it for the violence", but he liked the series enough to read them. I think the books get better written as the story progesses, and the first movie, while not fabulous, has some fun things about it. I think the next movie New Moon is going to be much better. And here's the truly pathetic part. I NEVER buy magazines off the rack at the store. I almost never even pick them up. Especially the ones that focus on celebrities and gossip. Well, at Walmart the other day, when I went to buy Twilight, the movie, there was a People magazine devoted entirely to the New Moon movie. Not only did I actually pick up the magazine and thumb through it. I put in my cart. Face down, of course, so no one could see that I had actually turned into a fan. Sigh. What is it that a woman of my ... life experience and wisdom (that's now been seriously called into question!) would be drawn into this?

I think I feel apologetic about it thanks to what I said at the beginning. I have always avoided reading the latest pop fiction. Maybe it IS a bit of snobbery on my part. Maybe I'm embarrassed to have to admit to this snobbery. But now I have the movie and the two books of music published (one is the popular music stuff and the other is the original score music). I've visited fan sites and talked with my sisters about my new addiction. I've had discussions with neighbors about this, and I'm going to go get a ticket to see New Moon with a group of them when it premieres. I don't have the soundtracks or the books of my own yet, but my birthday is coming. So I admit it. I read the Twilight series and I enjoyed it! There.

Oh, and Bronwyn doesn't get to read it until she's fourteen. She wouldn't like the kissing stuff, and wouldn't understand the rest. But I've shared the story with her as I read the books, telling her what was happening next. She just wanted to know what happened to everyone.