100 films in 2009
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Wall-E
- Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
I have been an avid reader ever since I was four years old. I started reading before Kindergarten and while everyone was learning to read in school I was reading chapter books by Roald Dahl like The BFG. I fell in love with books. Everywhere I went I was sure to have a book with me. I remember in first grade my dad took my sister and I on separate “dates” where we could do anything we liked. My sister went to the movies with him, and I asked to go to Barnes & Noble.
In school it became apparent to me that not everyone shared my love of reading. On some of my classmate’s Myspace profiles underneath “books” they’d write things like “Reading sucks”, “Do magazines count? lol” or other things of that sort. In junior high I’d be the first one done with my Accelerated Reader test, where you had to read a book of your choice and take a 10 question quiz on comprehension. While my friends chose the smallest books possible on the list, I would read books like Harry Potter.
Eventually, I came across Twilight in my junior high school’s library. I read it and enjoyed it, but eventually forgot about it. Later on I saw New Moon in Barnes & Noble. I was confused because at the end of Twilight Stephenie Meyer leads you to believe Bella becomes a vampire. For a while I was really into the series, talking to other fans on the internet about theories for the next book. In high school, Twilight became more popular. Everyone was reading it and becoming obsessed. By then, I had forgotten about Twilight and didn’t particularly understand what the obsession was about.
Now, this is what the whole post is about. It really annoys me when girls who started reading books because of Twilight feel they are different and better than everyone else because they like to read. I mean, as a reader myself, I can say that someone isn’t made special because they read, especially if they’re reading something everyone else at school is reading. And the thing about this that really irks me is that these girls don’t even read good books, they’re just reading Twilight.
If I go on Myspace right now and look at some of my female classmate’s profiles, nine times out of ten the Twilight series will be listed as their favorite books. I bet if I asked them what other books they liked most of them wouldn’t know what to say. Seriously, I understand if Twilight rekindled the pleasure of reading for you, but if you’re only reading the Twilight series that’s not saying much. You’re not a bookworm if you read only one series.
I am not a fan of the Twilight series, but that’s not why this is so annoying to me. The books themselves are not that great. The writing is like that of a twelve year old’s poorly written fanfiction starring themself and the man of their dreams, because honestly Stephenie Meyer wishes she was Bella Swan. And then you have these teenage girls saying things like “TWILIGHT IS THE BEST BOOK EVER!” and “Stephenie Meyer is the greatest author” when these things are clearly not true at all. If you girls read any other book you would realize this. But no, you are stuck in your fantasy world where Twilight is the only series you read and that suddenly makes you an intelligent, well read person. Even I don’t consider myself well read, and that’s saying something.
Lastly, when people defend Twilight as a good series they usually say something along the lines of, “Well at least it’s gotten more people to read.” I highly disagree with this statement. First of all, if a bad book makes more people read it doesn’t change the fact that it’s horrible. Secondly, I’d rather have people still think reading is lame than have hordes of ignorant girls claiming they are passionate readers while they really only read four books in a rather crappy series.
I apologize for the length of this blog but I really needed to let this out. If it’s too tl;dr here’s the shortened version:
Twilight is not a good book and Stephenie Meyer isn’t a good author. You aren’t a well read person for reading four poorly written books in one awful series. You insult those who actually read. Kthnxbai.
I played online pictionary and balloono with Andy, Patrick, and Casey for eight hours straight. I then fell asleep at 7am and woke up at 1pm. Then I ate, and started playing Balloono again with Andy and Rachael.
I am so exciting.