200th Post!!!

Using the excuse that I'm a Youth Services Librarian, and that I have to read it for my job, I managed to snag a copy of the Twilight series novella "The Short Second Life of Breen Tanner".

Now, since I'm not a Twi-hard (I only read the books once, which was enough, and I've hated both the movies I've seen), I couldn't remember who Bree Tanner was. Thank goodness for Wikipedia.

So far, I like this book much better than the other four Twilight books. First of all, it's short. Second of all, it's not whiny. Third of all, no Bella or Edward or mopey teenage angsty love triangles. And in spite of what Stepehenie Meyer did to vampires, it's very interesting to read from the vampire's point of view - especially a "newborn" vampire, who doesn't necessarily know what it is to be a vampire.
I'm not bad mouthing the original Twilight books - I found them highly entertaining to read, but not exactly what I would consider great literature. Some of the leaps of plot taken made me wonder if the story would reach the other side, or plummet into the gaping chasm below. Still, it was exactly what I expected from fluff-reading.

Twilight

I went and saw the Twilight movie last night. After hearing some horrible reviews, I didn't think it was that bad. Certainly, I prefer the book and the glossed over parts and skipped part, but all in all it was good.

A few things bugged me, though.

1. Edward (can you believe I can't find a decent picture??)
Really, not my vision of Edward. I know in the book he comes off as creepy and stalkerish, but by reading it from Bella's point of view, it was kind of sweet. In the movie, it was just creepy and stalkerish. Made worse by the face that the actor who played Edward *looked* SUPER CREEPY for the entire film. Honestly, I was waiting for Bella to get all weirded out, especially with the random mood swings from sullen "we shouldn't be together" to angry "I am a monster!" to jumpy "we're dating! whee!" and back again.

2. Special Effects

The production company must have got a good deal on spinning cameras because I was feeling the motion sickness at certain points. Really, lots of spinning. And pointless scenes of Edward and Bella lying around and leaping through trees. Okay. We get it. Edward can scale huge trees. We don't need to watch it for 5 minutes. They could have spent more time with the fleeing-the-evil-vampires part and less time with spinning cameras and jumping up trees.
(And really, what's Edward thinking? Take the clutzy girl up the tallest tree in the world?)


Things I thought were done well:

1. The Cullens

Edward aside (okay and maybe Esme too), I really liked the casting for the rest of the Cullens. Jasper was little bug-eyed the entire film (he looked like he had recently been electrocuted), but Carlisle and Emmett and Alice were awesome!

2. Jacob Black (and other minor cast members)


Such a cutie! In the first two books, I'm totally on Team Jacob.
Charlie and Billy were done very well too. I felt so bad for Charlie the whole movie. Bella was broody and kind of annoying, but Charlie did a good job of being the awkards what-the-hell-do-I-do-with-this-kid type of Dad.

3. The Bad Vamps


James was scary! Laurent was cool! Victoria was, well, crazy :) Very very well done. I wish they had been in more of the movie...


In conclusion: If you liked the book as a good read and not much more, you'll probably like the movie. If you loved the book bordering on obsession, you probably won't.

Morning Giggle

I do so love it when I get jokes. This is from the hilarious webcomic The Non-Adventures of Wonderella.

Clicking the image may make it bigger ... yup, it does. I just checked. Or you can go to the Wonderella website and read all her crazy non-adventures!!

Twilight

So I finally got my hands on the must-read teen book of the year. I thought that I wouldn't like it. First of all, it's a romance. But not just any romance. A vampire romance. Seems a little too cheesy for me, but it's my job to know what all the cool kids are reading, so I bought a copy (the waiting list at the library would take me all year to read, and by then the hype would be over)

I'm about 280 pages into this 498 page book - and I'm hooked. Honestly, this book is very difficult to put down. It's very well written, in my humble opinion, and I can see with crystal clarity why all the teen girls want to read it. Very vivid descriptions, a good balance of mystery and action and (of course) romance.

I won't go into plot details. There's really no point. If you've heard of this book, you know what it's about. If you haven't heard of it, well, you should give it a try.

Dee, I think you'll like it. You can borrow it from me when you visit, if you like.

Wow. I'm gushing about a teen romance. I think I'm getting sappy in my old age.