Cousinly Conversation Vlog: Our Thoughts on Breaking Dawn - Part 2

We saw Breaking Dawn - Part 2 this week and recorded a short vlog to share our thoughts on it.

Anatomy of a Reader: Why I'm Forever Indebted to Twilight

We thought that it'd be fun to do an occasional post in which we highlight a book, even if it’s not a YA title, that has had an impact on us and shaped us into the readers that we are today.

I’m kicking off this feature with Twilight, the novel that, for better or worse depending on who you ask, introduced the world to average human teenager Bella Swan and sparkly vampire Edward Cullen. I absolutely did not predict how much this book would affect my life, and I’m not just talking about the amount of money that I would eventually spend on the books, movie tickets, books about the making of the movies, etc. Twilight is the book that helped me rediscover my love of reading after a very, very long spell of not picking up a book on a regular basis. And if I hadn’t started reading again, I certainly wouldn’t be here today blogging about books.

As a kid, I was an extremely avid reader and always had my nose buried in a book. Once I went to high school, though, I had a lot less time for leisure reading. My summers as a teenager were filled with required reading, a lot of which wasn’t really my cup of tea and further put me off from books. College left even less time for anything but school-related reading, and by the time I graduated, one of the last things that I wanted to see for a while was a book.

After college graduation, I did read on occasion, but definitely not as much as I once did. That thought saddened me, but I didn’t know how to rekindle the love that I used to have for books. Then in 2008, my best friend asked me if I’d read this book called Twilight. I’d seen it on The New York Times Best Seller list for a while but never paid much attention to it. She had enjoyed reading the book and recommended it, but she did warn me that she didn’t like the second book nearly as much. I decided to give Twilight a try and bought a copy, which then sat on my shelf for about two months until Christmas. It probably would have remained there even longer if my cousin (and our guest blogger), Melissa, hadn’t received a copy as a gift and urged me to start reading mine. So I did.

For the next few nights, I got very little sleep because I could not put this book down. It wasn’t the best book that I’d ever read, but there was something about it that grabbed my attention and refused to let go. I was 31 at the time, and I hadn’t been this obsessed with a book in ages. The day after I finished reading Twilight, I went out and bought the rest of the series. I haven’t stopped reading (and buying books) since.

Although my fervor for all things Twilight has waned quite a bit over time, this book will always hold a special place in my heart because it got me back into reading for good. This is going to sound really corny, but in a way I feel like I’ve been reunited with a long lost best friend. One thing is for sure: we’re never going to fall out of touch again.