A second close friend started reading twilight last night (hi, aurabee!) and she’s loving it too!  Oh, how I love having people to talk to about it now.  Of course, I have to be careful not to say too much, but I’m perfectly fine with that.  Mostly I love hearing about their reactions, so I can relive my first read vicariously.

This is all New Moon spoilery!!!

Just a couple days ago, I was behind on my reading schedule.  Now I’m too far ahead.  But only because I cheated.  The thing is, I don’t have the patience to once again read through the 300-ish pages between Edward leaving and Alice returning. 

I enjoy the Jacob/werewolves storyline, but it worked much better for me when it was interspersed with stories of Edward and the rest of the Cullens/Hales in Eclipse.  I find myself flipping through pages or even chapters at a time going “blah blah blah, I know this already.”  And it’s true that I know all the vampire stuff, too, but… it’s why I read the series.  Repeatedly.  I’m all about the love story.  The love story of Edward and Bella. 

I’m not a Jacob hater, and the budding friendship between Bella and Jacob is important to the series, but I don’t want to spend too much time reading about it again.  At least not in the context of New Moon.   When I move on to Eclipse, I’ll start paying attention again, except for the parts that piss me off.

Anyway, I skipped through a lot of those chapters, and started reading in earnest again when Bella jumped off the cliff, which is why I’m way ahead of schedule.  I’m reading the Volterra chapters now, and I just had to share that I can’t help but to love Aro.  His enthusiasm is delightful!  Mostly, I think I find him so amusing because I hear his lines read in the voice of Killface. 

I fell behind on my chapters during the week, but I’m pretty sure I’m caught up now.  Or at least I’m close.  I read the last two chapters of Twilight this morning and have moved on to New Moon.   The next two paragraphs could be considered New Moon spoilery, so proceed with caution.  I’m not going to give specific details, but I will talk about my reaction to certain chapters.  Actually, it’s maybe a little more spoilery than I first planned, so don’t read the next two paragraphs if you haven’t read New Moon.

I’ve made it through just the first two chapters so far, and I’m already a mess.  Chapter three is so much worse.  It makes me sob like a bitch.  I thought maybe this time it wouldn’t be so bad, because I’ve already read it a couple times, so I know what’s coming.  Not so much.  Instead, knowing what is coming makes the preceding chapters that much worse. 

I started tearing up as soon as Carlisle started telling the story about changing Edward, and it kept up through the rest of the chapter.  I had to stop reading because I couldn’t see through the damn tears, and the worst is still to come.  Seriously, chapter three freakin’ kills me.  Plus, once I’m done with chapter three, I have 300-ish pages of Cullen-less story, and that makes me so sad. 

I’m taking a break now, and catching up on the past few weeks of the Savage Love podcast instead.  From a virginal vampire to a sex-advice columnist who is encouraging rape fantasies and the use of butt plugs.  Clearly I have varying interests.

As I was typing that, I friend of mine called to yell at me because she has a bunch of things she’s supposed to be doing, but instead she can’t stop reading Twilight.  Yay!  A successful conversion!  She’s just about to read chapter 13, which, as I’ve already mentioned a couple posts back, is one of my favorite chapters of the entire series.  She’ll be even more conversionier after this!

I was only able to get two chapters read tonight, so I’m officially a day behind where my formula dictated I be.  Wow, that was a bad sentence.  Whatever.

I’m having issues today with my wrist.  It hurts, Mom.  I’m not sure what’s up with it, but I can’t find a comfortable way to hold my book, and it effing kills when I have to type anything from the qwerty row or above. 

Today’s quote is representative of the frustration encountered by a smut-lover when reading a YA novel about a sexy, sexy vampire who is also a 100-something year old virgin who just will not give it up.

“Just because I’m resisting the wine doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the bouquet,” he whispered.

Because even though he wasn’t really talking about that when he said it, he really was talking about that when he said it… at least a little bit.

I got through only three chapters this evening, but I can make up for that on the weekend.  The last chapter I read is one of my favorite of the entire series:  13. Confessions.  It’s the first time Edward and Bella visit their meadow.  I would have to quote the entire chapter if I used even one line from it. 

Instead I’ve decided to go with a line from Charlie, which goes a long way in just a few words to perfectly portray his relationship with his daughter.

“You’re sure easy to live with, Bella.”  He smiled.

I do sometimes think Charlie’s parenting style seems a bit too emotionally passive , but he sure does love Bella, and at least they don’t have quite the reverse-role dynamic she had with her mom.

Go ahead… toast ‘em!

It’s like Sophie’s Choice trying to decide on a line from tonight’s chapters, but I’ve finally made up my mind.  I had five Edward-centric quotes, and one that’s still Edward-ish, seeing as how he said it, but it made me laugh, and it so clearly reminds me of my days as a teenage girl, which I sometimes foolishly feel like when I read this series.

Jessica’s analyzing everything I do– she’ll break it down for you later.

Oh, those were the days.  Analyzing every word, every facial expression, every twitch of the body.  Reading tone where it probably doesn’t exist, trying to remember each syllable and where the emphasis was.  Teenagers can be so silly.  Uhhh… as can thirtysomethings, as I prove each and every time a new obsession pops up.

At first I had a tough time finding the one quote that spoke to me in the first few chapters.  There are so many that I love, that really characterize both Bella and Edward, but as soon as I reached this sentence, I knew it was the one.  I remember this line from the first time I read the book, and it immediately caught me again this time.  A thought from Bella:

I was in disbelief that I’d just explained my dreary life to this bizarre, beautiful boy who may or may not despise me.

It’s the “bizarre, beautiful boy” part that really grabs me, because… yeah, exactly.  How could you not be dazzled by a bizarre, beautiful boy? 

I also love the humorous confusion in the last part of the sentence, “who may or may not despise me.”  Poor Bella.  So clueless as to what she’s done, as if she’d done anything at all, to gain alternating favor and antipathy from Edward Cullen.

It perfectly catches why this book hooked me and why the series has completely reeled me in.  There’s a great love story, fascinating characters, some exciting twists and action, but in the end, it’s all about the bizarre, beautiful boy.

I’m not sure if my plan from the last post is going to work.  It has taken me an hour and a half to read the first two chapters, because I keep stopping to jot down quotes that I like.  I’m trying for some variety, otherwise I’ll end up with just a bunch of things that make me love Edward Cullen.  That’s what most of them are anyway, but at least I have a couple in which Bella compares Mike Newton to a golden retriever. 

There are a couple that stand out to me, so I should be able to narrow it down, but I still have three chapters to go.  If I keep just the ones that are top tier for me, and only add those that I like just as much or more, maybe I can finish at a reasonable hour and not go to work tomorrow looking like it’s been too long since Edward fed.

The first thing you have to keep in mind is that I’m an obsessive  freak show. 

I’m sitting here thinking about starting my reread of the Twilight series to coincide with the release of Breaking Dawn on 8/2.  Assuming nothing out of the ordinary comes up, that gives me 16 reading days (Fridays don’t count as a reading day) to get through all three books.  Given the 78 chapters (including epilogues) all told, I have to read right around five chapters a day. 

It’s easy enough to do, but not as easy as it should be, not because I have to read five chapters a day, but because I can read only five chapters a day.  Sad.

I’m going to start a project that may or may not take.  I’m thinking I’ll pick one quotation from each block of chapters I read and… I don’t know.  Post it?  I should do more than just post it, I think.  I haven’t thought this through yet.  It won’t be spoilery, because some of you are planning to read it but haven’t yet.  Maybe I’ll sometimes be spoilery but clearly warn when it spoils so you can choose not to read it.  Maybe I won’t do anything at all, because I’m not sure yet what I should do.

All I know is that I have five chapters to read this evening and I’m excited to read it again because, as I mentioned, I’m an obsessive freak show.