Sidetracked

Soooo - I had intended to hash out the whole reproductive status angst today. However, I think I've made my engrossing addiction to the written word pretty clear, and that obsession has turned to something other than my blog right now. This makes it pretty impossible to write on such a serious, introspective topic.

My new obsession is the book, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Yes, yes, those of you in the know, scoff if you want. The main characters are teenagers. It's mainly a love story. It's fluff. blah blah blah. Despite all those things, I am absolutely intrigued, and I have not been completely intrigued and at ease with a book in a long time. I am completely enjoying it. I was in the middle of re-reading the Narnia books when a friend lent me her book, and I immediately forgot about The Silver Chair. I have most recently been reading non-fiction, and even when I turned to fiction, the last thing I finished was the His Dark Materials trilogy. If you haven't read them, they are not exactly the easy-reading, feel good books of the year. So I am happy to be so occupied.

The reading material I choose has to meet one (sometimes more) of the following criteria:
1. Does it make me happy? (if it doesn't, it has to meet #2)
2. Does it help me understand something or cause some revelations?
3. Do I like the characters or subject?
4. Are the words crafted in a skillful way? (of utmost importance)
5. Can I lose myself in it? (if not, again with the #2)

I really don't bother myself with whether it's something I should like, or if it's a classic or not. I either like it, or don't. It's simple. For example, I can appreciate that I probably learned a thing or two from reading Moby Dick. And I can even recognize the brilliance behind the writing. However, it falls so far from meeting criteria number 1, 3 and 5 that I refuse to ever read it again and read it as quickly as possible when it was required. The same thing goes for Shakespeare's tragedies. I do, however, enjoy his comedies. Then again, the Red Badge of Courage and the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass so fulfilled numbers 2, 3 and 4, that it didn't matter that they didn't make me "feel good." All this is coming from a girl who read Jenna Jameson's book and was fascinated by it. So there you have it. I guess the point here is that you can never quite predict what I will like, and that I really don't have a lot of qualms about reading just about anything unless it doesn't meet one of my criteria in a really significant way.

I wrote all that just to say that I'm enraptured by Twilight,** and that might make it a little difficult for me to post on serious subjects until I can get that story out of my head.


**Then again, I also adore Jane Austen and some other romance type books.