{"id":221,"date":"2009-03-20T10:40:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T10:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/2009\/03\/confessions-i-read-and-enjoyed-twilight.html"},"modified":"2009-03-20T10:40:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-20T10:40:00","slug":"confessions-i-read-and-enjoyed-twilight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2009\/03\/confessions-i-read-and-enjoyed-twilight.html","title":{"rendered":"Confessions: I Read (and Enjoyed) Twilight"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my New Year’s Resolutions<\/span> was to read more. Specifically, to read 12 books<\/a>. Which sounds like a lame goal, but considering that I spend a lot of my free time writing my own books and working on other writing assignments, is about as do-able as I can manage.<\/p>\n

The good news is that, so far, I’m on pace. It’s March. I just finished my fourth book of 2009. And they were long books.<\/p>\n

The bad news — at least for some of you, I suspect — is that you might be less than satisfied with the books I read. (Some of you, though, will be thrilled.) Here they are:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>1. Twilight<\/span><\/a>, by Stephenie Meyer
2. New Moon<\/a>, <\/span>by Stephenie Meyer
3. Eclipse<\/a>,<\/span> by Stephenie Meyer
4. Breaking Dawn<\/a>,<\/span> by Stephenie Meyer<\/p>\n

That’s right: I read all four books in the Twilight Saga<\/a> and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Before I tell you what in the world I was doing engrossing myself in the bestselling series of vampire romance books for teen girls, I first want to acknowledge that I’m probably not in the target demographic. I also want to make it clear that I didn’t wake up on January 1 and decide to read them. I was approached by a publisher sometime in the middle of the month and asked if I was interested in writing a pop-culturish book about vampires, in order to coattail on the whole Twilight phenomenon.<\/p>\n

I was skeptical from the beginning — other than a love for Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/a>, my interest in vampires has been pretty much non-existent. And at the time, I hadn’t read any Anne Rice<\/a> and was pretty unfamiliar with Twilight. So I decided I’d better start reading in order to make an informed decision on the project.<\/p>\n

Ultimately I turned the project down, as vampires didn’t seem to fit within my publishing goals or the “Jason Boyett” brand (to use a marketing term). But once I started reading Twilight,<\/span> I wanted to finish the series. I made time<\/span> to finish the series. To steal from Bryan Allain’s “Cannarf” rating system<\/a>, the books rose above my expectations. I was pleasantly surprised by the strength of the story.<\/p>\n

Two things to note:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Stephenie Meyer may have been writing YA novels for girls, but she can tell a good story and create a compelling world. I was hooked by the plot and storytelling despite the pulpy writing. I wasn’t drawn in as much by the romantic dreaminess of Edward Cullen as I was by the story arc, which was creative, suspenseful, and fulfilling.<\/p>\n

2. No, Stephenie Meyer is not the world’s best writer if you’re judging on technical prowess or the beauty of her prose. It’s pretty boilerplate stuff, as Stephen King has pointed out<\/a> (in what some might suggest was a pot-kettle-black moment). But she’s successful in that she turned a great idea into a well-plotted series of books written for a specific audience, and she did so with excellence. This led to the incredible word-of-mouth that drove book sales into the millions. And those things, when combined with some good luck, are required for a book to become a runaway bestseller.<\/p>\n

Do I recommend them? Sure. I think most open-minded readers will enjoy them, as long as you’re not looking for something high-brow, or literary, or not about mythological creatures with stunning good looks, charisma, and self-control. Probably women more than men. But that’s to be expected, right?<\/p>\n

Anyway, that’s my confession. Have you read the Twilight books? If so, what did you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to read more. Specifically, to read 12 books. Which sounds like a lame goal, but considering that I spend a lot of my free time writing my own books and working on other writing assignments, is about as do-able as I can manage. 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