Meander

We just got back from a few days on the lake. Dex loved it. I had a lot of time to read, so I am going to do something crazy and spend a minute talking about books. (Well, kind of...they are books, but they're written for teens.)

Several of my teacher friends, a few of my students, and Joel's niece have recently been obsessed with a vampire series written for adolescent young women called Twilight. I started reading them though and am a little perplexed. I don't love them. The stories are really engaging, so I am hooked and will read all four. But it is, as LaSirena put it, "literary crack". (Yes, you read it, but it leaves you pretty unsatisfied.) I have real issues with the main character. I don't understand the things that she does and I think she is a horrible role model for young women. My co-workers argue that we all read VC Andrews and that was certainly pretty messed up. I'll concede that point. Joel says it just sounds like the author stuck to the conventions of gothic storytelling with a fainting heroine and a controlling man. That might be true, but still...I hate to think of dozens of teenage girls reading this and thinking that the relationship between the main characters, Bella and Edward, is the kind of relationship to aspire to. Anyway, that's what I have been reading, and if you haven't heard of the series yet, you will soon. The movie comes out in November.