I am one of those people who have a ton of friends on LiveJournal, and while most of the time I keep up with people's Lost theories or track my friend's ideas about what's happening with Sam Winchester on Supernatural, there are times where the fangirls and fanboys of LiveJournal really go all out about books, movies or even music that I've never heard of.

That's exactly what happened when it came to Twilight. When the book first came out, I completely ignored what my friends and fellow bloggers were saying about it. I've read a lot of vampire stories, and for me there just came a point where I felt I had pretty much seen it all.

When I did finally cave in to the über-trend of reading this particular book, I actually viewed it much like a tragic car wreck -- I simply couldn't put it down. I do suppose that was the point, at least in part, of Stephanie Meyer. She did her job in that she wrote a book that every teenage girl across the world had to have a copy of.

Even though the plot of the story is one that reminds me of many other stories I've read (girl meets boy, they fall in love but boy tries to push girl away, girl finds out boy is a [sparkling] vampire, other vampires try to eat said girl, Sparkle Boy saves her), I just can't get past one simple fact:

The vampires sparkle.

That is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever read in my life (and trust me, I've read some doozies). Anyone who knows anything about Myths About Dracula And Vampires knows that vampires can't go out in the sun. It's one of the fundemental rules about vampires, really.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Stephanie Meyer found such success with her series of books. If it means that teenagers are reading more, then good for her. I just wish that someone would write a new vampire novel that wasn't so fickle in the plot and characterizations.