Sunday Night . . . Already?!

Have you ever given any thought to the phrases / comments that exit your mouth most often? One of mine would surely be, "WHERE did the day go?" (Insert baffled whine.) I'm sure I'll figure it out one day - that each day seems to go just as fast, if not faster, than the day before - and to not be surprised. But 'til then, I'll still complain about it.

A girlfriend pressed the first two books of The Twilight Series into my hands a couple of weeks ago. She warned that I wouldn't be able to sleep. But not because of the vampires I'd be reading about, but because the books were the can't-put-'em down type.

I have to admit that I struggled with the first one. It wasn't until about page 265 (I'll have to go check) that the story got interesting. So, wading through those first few chapters kept me from really getting into the storyline. Until Friday night. Now, both Book 1 and Book 2 have been devoured (pun intended).

I had to close the book at the indecent (indecently early!) time of 11:00 PM, give or take, on Friday due to the early alarms needed (two, thank you very much) in order to get to my 7:00 AM nannying gig. Last night, I couldn't wait to get home, put my feet up, and get back into it.

See, ordinarily, I don't LET myself pick up a physical book. Audio books are one thing 'cause then I can be doing the dishes or the ironing or washing & packing eggs while I'm "reading" (i.e. listening). But, good ol' fashioned paperbacks? I won't let myself pick 'em up, 'cause I can put 'em down. Not good ones. (And what's the point with the other kind?!)

But, it's been AGES since I've allowed myself to be seduced, so I decided that my Mother's Day gift (hey, Chicken Mama's a [kinda] mama!) to myself would be to finish these books.

Both Tom and I got home around 6:30 last night, and dinner was . . . hmmm, I've forgotten! Did we eat? We must have. My mind is blank. Anyway, we both settled in the livingroom for some reading. Tom retreated to the comfort of the king-sized bed upstairs fairly early, and I adjourned into the sunroom where I built a crackling fire in the woodstove. And then, aside from what felt like about 300 up-and-down, up-and-downs letting either Maisy or Tucker or Annie Blue in or out . . . I read. I read and read and read. Ahhhh, the decadence of it! I read until 2:30 AM and only went to bed then 'cause I was STARVING and would have had to make myself a good amount of food (at that late hour) if I was gonna continue.

This morning I slept in (it being the aforementioned Mother's Day and all) and then took my coffee and bowl of Cheerios back to the sunroom couch to finish the 2nd book. It only took until 1:30. (Good thing I didn't have the third book!)

There is one thing I have to cop to, though, lest you think I'm a speed reader (these books are about 500 pages each): there are some B-O-R-I-N-G backstory (i.e. unnecessary) parts that I skim over REALLY quickly. I mean, like, flip, flip, flip the pages until I see Bella's, Edward's, or someone else's (interesting!) name again. Who CARES who asked whom to the high school dance??? Who CARES about Allison and Mike and Jessica?! Maybe I'll find in Books 3 and 4 that they have some bearing on the story (in which case I'll go back and read those parts), but - for now - they are nothing more than FILLER!

There's no doubt that this author is a competent one. If not, she wouldn't have kept me on the couch for nearly 8 hours last night. But WHY, then, did she spend sooooooo many pages on the secondary characters? On the B-O-R-I-N-G high school lives? Maybe it was her / the agent's / the publisher's way of getting younger readers (who these books must be geared towards) more interested? I dunno, but I could o' taken about 200 pages out of the first book and nearly the same out of the second. I'm ordering the books in the audio format, though, and - while doing dishes - maybe I'll learn that I DID miss something in those pages I flipped so quickly through. Time will tell. I'll keep you posted. ;)