reading

I have a new addiction. Reading. I don't know if it's the constant fighting between Grace and Hattie or what, but apparently, it appeals to me to escape into another life during the day by reading a book. I used to watch TV for such needs, but the two little stinkers I'm raising won't allow a channel to be on that doesn't project animated programming.

I have always loved reading, but didn't really have time to do it recreationally as a student or during my career as a teacher. Not that I really have time now, but I can adjust my schedule a bit to include it. (or ignore a chore, or a child, or an errand.) I have belonged to a couple of book clubs, but rarely would I attend having finished the book being discussed. Not so anymore (unless the book is a non-fiction book longer than 200 pages - like I said - ESCAPE is the motivator, not LEARNING!)

Well, I don't know why I feel the need to share, but I just finished Stephenie Meyer's latest vampire novel, Breaking Dawn. If you're not a fan, its the 4th and I think final in a series that has been compared with the Harry Potters. On the surface, her books are pretty standard melodramatic teen romance novels. I felt silly starting the series, my friends in book club all roll their eyes at me, but my MOM got me into it! (I felt the same way when David and I started reading the way-too-popular-for-our-tastes Harry Potter.) But, I was hooked from the first page of "Twilight" - the first of the vampire stories. I think the first appeal for me was how Meyer described a girl who had to move from sunny, arid Arizona to dark, rainy, claustrophobic Washington State. It was all too real to my experience moving from Utah to Massachusetts. I had to keep reading.

Then, there's the romance. It was annoyingly dripping with way too much lovey-dovey stuff at first for me, I could only relate having recently been a high school teacher. But once I really got into it I started thinking of her writing in a different way. You have to look past all the grammar errors, spelling mistakes (who is her EDITOR!), and 600 page-long run-on sentences, but in the end, those things probably make me like her writing more than if she wrote like an English Professor.

I'm just blown away by 1- her imagination, 2- her ability to write these things while staying at home with 3 little kids, 3- the really great underlying messages in her stories, 4- the endless ability to write something that demands to be read until the story is over. Part of it is the 600 page run-on sentence problem - you can't put it down until you finish a sentence!
These are things I've learned (or been reminded of) from reading about "vegetarian" vampires in love:

1- the gift to choose your actions is the greatest gift you will recieve
2- you are responsible for all choices you make
3- you do not HAVE to do anything just because your biology or your history or someone else tells you to do it. you can choose otherwise.
4- love beats all
5- family is way important
6- love and family are eternal
7- there are many lives to live
8- everyone has a gift, some are more useful than others, but every gift should be used for good and they are often more powerful when used that way
9- the power of self-control will save you and those you love from otherwise dire outcomes
10- no matter how different another creature may be from you, you have more in common with it than you don't

I have also just finished reading "The Enchantress of Florence" by Salman Rushdie. (a book for my book club) He is supposed to be one of the world's "most important living authors." After finishing this novel fraught with seriously seriously disturbing scenes, nearly rated X descriptions, sad and depressing views of love, war, and religion, convoluted story lines, and really not much of a point in the end, I really wonder which of the two is the more important living author. The esteemed Salman Rushdie, or the stay-at-home mom vampire novelist, Stephenie Meyer.

Ok - all you PhD English major people can shred me in the comments section. But, have you read the vampire books yet? Let's just say that there is NO WAY I would read 750 pages of anything else in less than 4 days.

I know, I know - I should be reading the scriptures! don't judge...