I was planning on doing this during my lunch break at work, but I didn't get the time at all. I think I underestimated my workload for this month by a mile. Now I can't work properly because I'm thinking "Am I prioritizing the right thing? Should I have done this later?" which leads to me not working, which leads to work not being done, which leads to work piling up. Argh! If I could only learn how to execute Kage Bunshin!
Well, let's forget about that for a while! Bring out the next entry!
Day 11 - A book you hate(d)
Y'know I just realized these questions are a bit repetitive. Or at least my answers for these questions will tend to be repetitive. Serves me right for not reading all the questions when I first encountered them! Anyhoo, I will try my best to not repeat any of my answers for this challenge.
See the little modification I made on today's question? It's cause I still hate this book, haha. So without further ado...
The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer.
*gets pelted with donuts*
Hehe. Anybody who knows me must have seen that coming from lightyears away! I don't think I've hated a book as much as this one, so it deserves to be written about. Just to clarify, I hated Twilight before it was cool to hate it (lol). Nobody can tell me that I hate it irrationally without ~reading the book~.
I once wanted to read Twilight because a lot of people I follow on Livejournal have read it and praised its beautiful love story. The blurb wasn't actually all that interesting (small-town girl in love with vampire boy, oh whatever shall we do), but I decided to give it a go. Plus, I really liked the cover. SUE ME.
So I picked up a friend's copy, and immediately after I read the prologue, I thought to myself, "Is this seriously published work? Published work?" The language Meyer employs is one I very much associated with fanfiction. Mediocre fanfiction, at that.
"But, no mind!" I said to myself again. Maybe the writing sucks but the story is its saving grace.
Oh, how I wish somebody just told me to put down the goddamn book!
Aside from the writing getting exponentially worse, I had such a problem with Bella Swan's existence. First of all, nobody is forcing you to move away from home. It's explicitly stated in the narration. However, she chooses to move out anyway, and finds a way to bitch about her move every 2 sentences. Seriously? Also, the narration makes it a point to mention how "smart" and "bookish" she is, but why does she keep making the stupidest decisions ever? Seriously, that's how you characterize "smart"?
The first time I read this, I hardly made it through the first quarter of the book before violently putting it down. Then, it exploded in popularity, and I said to myself, "y'know maybe she gets better when the love story progresses. Let's try it again." I read it from an e-copy of my dormmate the second time.
It still sucked.
And now, it had the added suckage of touting "the greatest love story of all time" in the form of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. All I can do is shake my head at this nonsense.
I am not the greatest expert in love stories. But what I do know is that it's never romantic to break into a girl's house and watch her while she sleeps, ruin her car engine so she can't meet her friends, involve her in various perilous situations, and keep on calling her variations of the term "idiot". And all these traits are supposed to be endearing!
Seriously, if I met a guy like this in real life, no matter how hot he is, he is getting a swift kick to the groin.
And don't even get me started on the whole imprinting thing! I don't know what kind of person thinks it's a good idea for a grown man to be "imprinted" to a two year old, or even a newborn! That's so wrong in all sorts of levels. The "soulmates" excuse just doesn't cut it.
I have a lot more problems with this series, especially the blatant sexism, but I'd have enough material for a novel.
The thing is, it's OK for bad novels to exists. It's OK for people to be horrible writers. But what bugs me about this book is that it has some undeniable sorcery that for some reason, people become totally blind to the fact that it's problematic and sub-par. It's scary how people are idealizing this kind of relationship as "perfect" and "dreamy" when in reality, it's almost a complete mirror image of an abusive relationship. Read the book, enjoy it by all means, but at least acknowledge that it's highly problematic.
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Day 12 - A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 - Your favorite writer
Day 14 - Favorite book of your favorite writer
Day 15 - Favorite male character
Day 16 - Favorite female character
Day 17 - Favorite quote from your favorite book
Day 18 - A book that disappointed you
Day 19 - Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 - Favorite romance book
Day 21 - Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 - Favorite book you own
Day 23 - A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 - A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 - A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 - A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 - The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 - Favorite title
Day 29 - A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 - Your favorite book of all time
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