Ok...I did it.

I read them. I know, I know, I swore I wasn't going to. At least not until it didn't irritate me endlessly to see them everywhere and I stopped seeing my friends dropping like flies joining Team Edward. (This post is for you Corra, LOL!)

The opportunity arose for me to acquire them with no financial obligation (my irrational annoyance with them would have NEVER allowed me to pay money for them), so I figured I might as well, and I'd just wait for that day that I figured would take ages to come.

Then I hurt my back last week and for days on end I was completely useless. So what else was I going to do?? Well, read the entire Twilight series in 8 days, that's what I did. Anyone who hasn't read them and wants to may want to stop reading here, just in case I give anything away.

As I begun reading "Twilight" I was surprised to find that the story did keep me interested despite the very weak excuse for a plot, and so I kept going. Not the greatest book I'd ever read, but it was quick and easy and with my life I like quick and easy reads. Knowing the original target audience was young teenagers helped me forgive some of its flaws as well. Although...knowing the target audience also made some of the themes seem a bit inappropriate as well, but I decided I was just going to push that out of my mind and live in denial until my children are 30. There were things I just shook my head at and thought "what was she thinking?" Like the whole sparkly thing. But, whatever, its fiction right? "New Moon" and "Eclipse" felt much the same to me, I was compelled to keep reading despite the flaws.

I was able to understand the draw to Edward. Although I still don't get the obsession with him. I mean, he's a character, in a book... But yeah, who wouldn't be attracted to the fantasy of being loved so fiercely by someone so perfect in every way, who would die a horrible death for you every day of his life to keep you safe, someone who would go to the ends of the earth to make you happy, not to mention the whole physical aspect that I'm in denial about. But, its just that, a fantasy...and I did get bored at times with the constant "I love you's" and "I want to be with you forever's", it got very redundant. So, rest assured I will, as I predicted, NOT be shouting to the rooftops that I've joined Team Edward.

Then I got to "Breaking Dawn"... And somehow I could feel my thoughts changing. I'm not sure if it was because it was so different from the first three in that there was an actual resemblance of a plot and it was just structured differently, or if Ms. Meyer programmed hypnotic suggestions into the text. But I quite literally could NOT stop reading. It wasn't just that the story kept me interested enough to want to find out what happened next, it seemed vital to me that I know how everything turned out. In the logical part of my brain I knew that I should not be so enthralled in the story, it was JUST a book, and not even that amazing of one, but I couldn't help myself. It was like literary crack and nothing better stand in the way of me getting my fix. The kids would want stuff from me and in my head I was screaming "GO AWAY, CAN'T YOU SEE I'M READING!!!!" I had to tear myself away and then the only thing I could think about was how fast I could get back to it. During the times when I HAD to stop reading I could not stop thinking about it, it was overtaking my brain. It was the strangest sensation, I could feel my internal struggle over my sanity, and in the end sanity lost and I finished that one quicker than the first three even though its the longest.

I'm glad that Bella and Edward got their happy ending. And I suppose I can actually say I'm glad I read them.

And even more glad that I came out not having fallen into the rabid obsessed fan club wondering how they can con a sparkly vampire into taking out their husbands.