Wizards, Werewolves, and Vampires Oh My!

On a scale of one to ten, I'd probably rate myself a four when it comes to Twilight Obsession. I know there are others out there (John) who would put that number higher, but I've seen a lot more dedicated fans out there. For starters, I don't even think I've read the whole series more than three times. I don't have a website dedicated to Twilight, I haven't written any fanfic on the Twilight books, or any fan letters for that matter, I've never really considered attending one of the many Twilight conventions, or any of the movie sets to try and catch a glimpse of the actors. I have yet to purchase any Twilight apparel, (although admittedly it's not out of the realm of possibility) and I certainly haven't formed any rock bands dedicated to the world of Twilight either.

That being said, I have gone to a Midnight release party for one of the books, had Stephenie sign some books, and I do have my favorite websites dedicated to the Twilight Universe that I like to visit from time to time. The other night I was spending my time in just such a worth while manner, and Madison came up and started asking me what I was looking at.

"Who's that?"
"Edward."
"Oh. Who's that?"
"Alice."
"Who's Alice?"
"Edward's sister."
"Oh. Which one is the girl he loves?"
"You mean Bella? That's her right there."

Then I proceeded to give her a run down of the different characters in the pictures- "Edward, Edward, Edward, Bella, Edward, Jacob, Alice, Edward, Emmett, Jacob, Bella, Edward, Jacob..."

"Who's Jacob?"
"He's a werewolf."
"And werewolves and vampires are enemies?"
"Yep."
"What are these pictures of?"
"These are pictures from the new movie they are making- New Moon."
"They're making another Twilight movie?"
"Yep."
"When can I watch the first one?"
"After you read the books."
"When can I read the books?"
"After you read all the Harry Potter books."
"You're so mean! I hate Harry Potter!"

I put that little stipulation out there for two reasons- first as much as I enjoy the Twilight books, I think she's a bit too young to read them. I think I'd like to hold her off for a few years first. Maybe when she's 13, or 14. Or 15. Secondly, she can't be a child of mine and not love Harry Potter. It really bugs me that she won't give it a chance.

I finally convinced her to give the books a shot. She didn't like the movies, and I think she was slightly prejudiced against them anyway because Nick loves them, so reason dictates that if he loves them, she will hate them. And everyone knows, 9 times out of 10, books are gonna be better than movies. You can't really judge a book based on it's movie. For the most part, the movies are supplemental. They're fun. They help provide images and give faces to characters. And the longer the book, the more they have to cut out of the movie to make it fit into an allotted time slot. But to judge a book like Harry Potter based on the movies, is downright criminal.

We compromised though- She would give the books a shot, but I'm the one doing all the reading.

By the end of the first chapter she was totally hooked. (Weren't we all, though?) She would beg for another chapter, and has talked her way into staying up an hour past her bed time while I read to her for the last three nights in a row.

I love that she's getting so enthusiastic about it, but at this rate I am worried we will be finished with all the books by the end of the summer, at which point I will have to figure out another way to delay her interest in Twilight. I'm worried that among other things, I will have to take an "out of sight, out of mind" approach to it and hide my obsession from her view. That will get difficult as the release of New Moon gets closer and closer.

(BTW the new trailers out for HP6 are totally freaking awesome. I'm getting really excited.)