Thursday, October 15, 2009

On Light Reading (Off Topic)

Ok, so what is so bad about doing a little light reading, I ask you, for relaxation and entertainment? When my brain is half-melted at the end of the day with a full workday trying to get ready for an upcoming vacation, a heaping mental plate dealing with an amazing but challenging four year old kid, the rest of the hectic-ness of a busy life, and a tad of recent mid-life crisis thrown in for good measure, do I REALLY have to read something deep and intelligent all the time, if I am going to read at all? I am confident in my own intellect, mind you, but it still raised my hackles a bit when it was insinuated by some of my other (dear and) intelligent friends that I am essentially a dumbass if I can dig a certain book that is fraught with overexposure in popular culture of late. Isn’t reading a book, even if it is a light and easy book, still a step up intellectually from watching TV or reading a magazine, which are also considered perfectly valid ways to unwind? (And I do those things a fair bit, thank you very much!)

When the “Twilight” books came out a while back, I saw how goofy everybody got over them, I even knew people who were posting that they had to drop everything for a couple of days to finish reading them because they couldn’t put them down, and I was inclined not to like the idea of the book(s) myself as a result of such silliness. I really thought it was weird that people I thought of as so normal got so obsessed over them. (I still do.) However, more out of curiosity than anything else, I recently decided to read the first one in the series. In light of the impending protest by several and proclamation by one good friend that people should read Bram Stoker’s Dracula instead, because it is “classic for a reason”, I purchased a copy of that, too, and plan to read it next as an exercise in contrast and comparison. Perhaps I’ll even write a book report of sorts, analyzing the two jointly.

Because I was in the mood for a distinctly lighter read, I chose to read Twilight first. Apparently I have shocked and disappointed the above-mentioned folks in the process! Can ye naysayers not appreciate a light read? Granted, the characters are teenagers, but I’m sorry, the sexual electricity created with this story is fantastic. WHAT IS SO WRONG WITH ENJOYING A LITTLE CHEAP THRILL now and then, come on?! Further, the back story with the vampires and the differences in their characteristics from those we are previously most familiar with is not half bad. I can see, however, that several of the “special” effects described in the book, which are intended to create a picture in your mind, which are fairly cool in the context of MY mind, probably look really lame on a screen, so I don’t intend to see the movies. Likewise, with the way they describe the looks of some of the characters, I fail to see how they can be done justice by any lame angsty teenage actor, such as they who are plastered all over the magazines..

My opinion is that people who are obsessed with the book must be missing a little something in their lives (apologies if this hits home!) But, after almost finishing it I stand firmly by the book as being GOOD. It is not the end-all-be-all of teenage, vampire, or any other books, but it is reasonably good, and fairly entertaining. In conclusion, anyone that thinks I’m a cheesy dumbass for reading and kinda liking Twilight can BITE me. (Pun intended!)

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