A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Arrogance

My first book review will be a short one, namely because I have not managed to torture myself through completing the introduction to said book.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers looked like a book with promise. Unfortunately the writing (just in the introduction) is so pompous that I have yet to waste my time finishing the rest of the book. Eggers likes his $10 words and the sound of his own voice in his head and relishes the processes of his own mind, just a wee bit too much.

Heartbreaking? Yes, I shouldn't have spent money on it. It is a definite library read, like a movie you wait to get on DVD instead of going to the theater to see it.

Staggering? Indeed, in it's arrogance.

Genius....doubtful.

We'll see.

But, that's just my review of the introduction.

One of these days, when I have nothing better to do, maybe I will waste my time finishing it. It will not be done out of curiosity but out of the simple, practical fact that I spent money on that book and I'm going to read it.

Horror. I am NOT looking forward to it.

Confessions of A Teen Novel Junkie

There is a confession I must make.

I am 30 years old. Three little boys call me "mom," my husband calls me on his way to work, on his way to school, and on his way home. My university calls me a Broadcast Media major with a business management minor.

In short, I am a grown woman with the responsibilities of a grown woman...and I have read Twilight.

There. I've said it.

For years I ignored the series and chided those who didn't. After all, it sounded like a rip-off of LJ Smith's Vampire Diaries series which I had read back in 1991, when they came out. (My originals sit proudly within my towering stack o'novels. They have that wonderful old book smell.) Last year, however, I began debating with a girl who always had a copy of one of the Twilight books. She kept insisting that I read them. My response was that I was too old for vampire love stories and that it sounded just like a series I had read when I was in middle school.

Over Christmas break, in spite of my husband's demeaning laughter, I watched the movie. The parallels between the two stories were blatant and almost embarrassing. The only difference was that, I didn't buy it. I didn't buy the sudden love. "You smell so good, I have to be with you." And where did her love spring from? It just wasn't fleshed out enough. I don't know.

It also irritated me that the two initial scenes wherein the damsel is rescued by the brooding hero, were so fast. He gets out of the car and growls at the guys, seriously?

Maybe, I thought, it was just a poor job of adapting the book into a movie. Like Harry Potter, maybe it lost the essential essence in the adaptation.

So, amid more laughter from my loving husband, I bought the book. And read it in a day. He marveled, "I could never read a book that fast." I shrugged. It was no big deal. There was nothing complex or new about it and I didn't feel compelled to slow down and savor the story.

I will say this, Twilight is probably the BEST book to film adaptation I have ever seen. That is something to be admired.

So I can now say, "Yes I have read Twilight and yes, Vampire Diaries is way much better. "

More on those embarrassing parallels to come.....