On Sunday I started reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyers and could not put it down. Seriously, I plowed through 300+ pages of it and had to force myself to stop so I could go to bed. On Monday, before I went to work, I went to Target to buy the next book in the Twilight series. Yes, before I had finished the first one, because folks, they are THAT GOOD.

What are these books about? Um, vampires. And the girl that loves one of them. Did I mention that the series is shelved in teen fiction? Actually this series isn’t just any teen fiction, it is exactly what every teen fiction title should be: a sappy love story with overly dramatic characters and VAMPIRES! It is perfection wrapped in a kinda cryptic cover that only has a slight bit to do with the story.

If this book had existed when I was a teenager, in the middle of my goth-wearing-all-black-loving-anything-about-vampires phase I would have proclaimed it The Best Book Of All Time. I would have written poems about how this book spoke to me. I would have told whatever boy I was dating that he didn’t get me the way Edward got Bella. But now that I’m an adult who wears color and doesn’t write bad poetry, I’ll just declare it The Best Book I’ve Read This Month. And I’ll admit that I have a bit of a crush on Edward the Vampire, because some things from my teenage years I will never outgrow.

The other thing about Twilight is that a film adaptation will be released in December and seriously, read the book now before you see the movie. After reading the book I was pretty excited about the movie but when I found out that the kid playing Edward also played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter 4 I have to admit I got a bit too excited. The cops will be arriving shortly to pick me up for being a pedophile but I don’t care, Cedric Diggory was hot. (so is Harry Potter. don’t act surprised, you know you agree) And now Cedric is Edward who is a vampire! Teenage me has officially died and gone to goth girl heaven.

So, after this incredible book review, who wants to borrow my copy of Twilight first?

Whitney over at the Ugly Green Chair tagged me for a meme and since the only time I’ve spent on my blog this week has been to change almost all of my category titles (exciting!), I am more than happy to take part in the fun.

Total number of books I’ve owned:
HA! I worked in a bookstore for a number of years, was an English major, have a major issue with walking out of a bookstore empty handed, and haven’t had a library card in oh, maybe 10 years. So about 2500 books? I am in no way worried that I’m over-estimating. In fact, I would bet I’m under-estimating.

Last book I bought:
The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor
I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle

I guess technically whatever one of those was scanned last by the Border’s employee that checked me is the last book I bought.

Last book I read:
I’ve got a bad habit where I read 2 or 3 books at the same time. I have an easy read in the bathroom for when I take baths. Usually this is a teen fiction title because I seriously love me some teen lit. I keep a book on my night stand for when jparks won’t turn off his laptop at night. And I usually have a third book in the car or in my purse. So the last bathroom book I read was: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. Last night stand book was: Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott. And the last car/purse book was: Beautiful Boy by David Sheff.

Five books that mean something to me:
I’m not going to pretend that all of these books are great works of literature. Heck, you might have even read one of them and hated it. But to me they are special for some reason or another.

Five people that should answer these questions:
You, You, You, You, and You

~Grouch Marx

Once upon a time I was an English major. (as in literature, not grammar. Just throwing that out there so maybe, maybe, jparks will finally shut up when I miss a comma.) During this time I was also a bookstore employee, so it’s safe to say that I enjoy reading. It’s also safe to say that I enjoy lemon squares with a light dusting of powdered sugar, but that’s off topic. I’ve got a pretty diverse palate when it comes to books; I enjoy all types of fiction, children’s lit, biographies, nonfiction, and the occasional trashy romance novel (kidding. I’m just not into heaving bosoms. Well, other than jparks’). But lately, when I look at my overflowing bookshelf, nothing appeals to me.

It’s like I’m experiencing some kind of reverse writer’s block, a reader’s block, if you will. Jparks and I are both in the habit of buying books as soon as we see them, instead of buying them when we are ready to read them, so I have a large back stock of things that I know I wanted to read at some point in the past, but not so much right now.

I think the reader’s block is growing from really missing the reading assignments that were given by my English professors. I attended a “classics” high school so a lot of the books and authors we read in my college classes were new to me and I instantly fell in love with many of them. I was the student that bought my books before the semester had even started (the professors always posted the book lists on their doors) and would try to plow through as many of the novels as possible before the start of class so I would have a good base for rereading during the semester.

Yes, I was a dorky teacher’s pet, why do you ask?

Anyway, the point of this meandering post was that I’m wondering if you’ve read anything good lately that you might want to tell me about. It doesn’t have to be fine literature, it can be crap fluff literature and I won’t judge. Or it can be nonfiction, I’m an equal opportunity reader. Maybe it’s not something that you’ve read lately, but your favorite book that you can reread and never tire of. Oooh, or do you have copies of your college English class syllabuses that you want to share? Come on, stop bogarting the authors and share with the rest of the class.

My new year’s resolution for 2007 is that I will continue my shoe sobriety for the whole year. Yup, no shoes from now until January of 2008…

I had you going there for a minute, didn’t I? Did you really think I could go a whole year without buying shoes? Oh, hell no! I’m not ever half way through the 90 days and I’m wondering how I’m going to make it. So far, I’ve only had one pair of shoes I’ve seriously thought about breaking down and buying, but I somehow managed to walk away. But, that’s all beside the point.

My early new year’s resolution is to record and make comments about every book I read, album I buy, and movie I see next year. Sound silly and like I’m going to be making very boring blog posts for the next year? Yeah, maybe a bit of both, but the point is that when 2007 ends I’ll be able to accurately create a best of list (best movies I saw, books I read, etc).

Right now I can’t tell you what the best movie I saw this year was, simply because I can’t remember half the movies I saw. And don’t get me started on music. I buy more music than I should, it’s as simple as that.

I don’t plan on overloading my blog with all of this information on a daily basis, maybe I’ll have a side page with the most recent comments and stuff. I haven’t really worked out the specifics yet.

Anyway, stayed tuned for that.

In case anyone pays attention to the books I read, that last one, The Secret Life of Bees, was crap. I don’t recommend it.