Friday, January 23, 2009

It got me

I didn't go looking for it.  We don't even have TV, so I had no idea until a month or two ago what Twilight even was.  When I saw the books, I realized I'd been seeing them in the front windows of bookstores for the past few years.  When my mom and sisters decided we'd all get the Twilight books for each other for Christmas and then we could all take turns reading them, I said why not.  I always like to read, and I was intrigued at that point.  When Kathleen decided to offer up the first book, I declined because I was in the middle of a book series I was enjoying already.  But when I did read the first book, I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Mom brought over the second book on Wednesday when she took Emily for me so I could do errands.  I was feeling under the weather that day though, so I spent most of my time reading the book and I finished it yesterday.  Now I have a problem.  Twilight has got me.

I am the proud owner of the 4th book in the series, and I have read the first two books in the series, but the third books is currently being read by my sister, the slowest reader on the planet.  Not only is she the slowest reader on the planet, but between her long work days and her 3 hour commute every day she has very little time to read in the first place.  That poses a problem.

I could just buy the stinkin' book, but books are such a good thing to put on birthday and Christmas lists, and why buy it when I know I can get someone else to buy it for me if I'm patient?  I looked at my library's website, and was encouraged to see that the wait for Eclipse is only 2 days.  But then when I went to place a hold on it, it seems that there are actually 49 people on the waiting list.  Where do they get 2 days from?  It can't be 2 days per person, so I have no clue why it said that on the first page.  Then I noticed they had it on ebook, and it said there was 1 available.  I called the library to see how I could go about acquiring this ebook, and she told me that there are 15 people on the waitlist for it.  When I pointed out that it said there was 1 copy available, she said "Yes, that means we OWN 1 copy, and we can only send it to 5 people at a time".  Library-speak must be very different from the language I speak, because to me "1 available" means there is 1 ebook available for me to have right now.

I even eyed the Amazon Kindle, a pretty slick piece of technology that is also (in my opinion) a colossal waste of money, except for the fact that when you're reading a series and you have to know what happens next, you just click to download the next book and you're reading it within minutes.  Too bad Kindles are back-ordered for the next 5-7 weeks.  Oh, and they cost $359 to boot.  Poo.

Then I called my sister to beg.  Her boyfriend is coming up this weekend, and I was hoping that she wouldn't be doing much reading.  If I could just have the book for 2-3 days, I could finish it and give it back to her, then I'd be home free since the 4th book is already in my possession, sitting on my bookshelf taunting me.  She said she'll probably read it a bit this weekend, but that she'll give it to me on Monday because it makes her stay up too late anyway when she tries to read it during the week.  Last night she and my mom and I all went to go see the Twilight movie that is in the cheap theaters now.  That didn't help.  Nor did it help that Krista kept saying "The third book is so much better than the first two".  I told her to hush, because in 5 days I'll be in a position to tell her how it ends.

Even though I will have the book in just a few days though, I'm going nuts.  I'm considering buying the hardback version at Barnes and Noble and returning it when I'm finished.  I've done it before when I was a poor college student...but I know if I tried it now Emily would choose that book to color in/tear to pieces/shove under the couch so I can't find it etc.  I'm contemplating how long Borders (and Emily) would let me just sit there in one of their chairs reading the same book.  I just need a little!  I'm like a junkie looking for a fix.

Really, it's a good thing that I don't have the book right now.  It's fun to have something to look forward to instead of blasting through all the books at once and then wishing there was more to read.  I've honestly tried to read more slowly, it just irritates me and feels unnatural.  And I had a nice day today so far.  Emily and I went to Little Gym, and then we spent almost 2 hours playing outside.  It's 50 degrees today, and it felt SO nice to get out of our germy, closed-up house, and now instead of reading I can clean up the kitchen during Emily's naptime.  

They're not even the best books in the world, to be perfectly honest.  I won't sit here and list their shortcomings just to make myself look smarter...they're written to entertain, and they do that well in my opinion.  They're fun and they're quick and they're compelling.  

And addictive.


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