The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. All my writer-type, literary friends are shaking their heads at me right now. I tried not to read them. I really did. I don’t like vampires. I haven’t read any other vampire books. They were so popular, too popular – I wanted to go against the grain and avoid them. But I read them.

Here’s my take: They are not bad. Not award-winning, not go-down-in-history-like-Tolkien or anything, but they are pretty good as far as teenage romances go. I think brooding Bella represents how a lot of (but not all) female teenagers are nowadays. I think there is some creativity behind the “vegetarian” vampire thing. I liked the love story part, but underneath my 34-year-old shell I’m still a boy-crazy, love-crazy teenager. (Only now I just direct all that toward ONE boy. And I sometimes have crushes on fictional characters.)

My favorite book in the series is actually the last one. Though Stephenie Meyer’s caught some flak for this, I actually like the fact that Edward insists that they wait to get married before they have sex. Nobody puts that message out there anymore. I love the part when Bella becomes a vampire. I am surprised at this, because I hate vampire stuff, but I think Meyer did a good job with this part of the book. I enjoyed seeing Bella figure out all her vampire senses, abilities, and desires.

So . . there you go.

What book are you embarrassed to say you’ve read?

Here’s what Karla picked.