I am going to level with all of you - I don't like to be a hater, but if there is one book series I can't stand, besides Fifty Shades of Grey, it is the Twilight saga. I read the debut book when I was 17 years old, almost 18, during the summer before my senior year of high school. I also read the other three shortly after. The reason I picked up Twilight in the first place is because of my best friend Jen. The two of us have been friends since we were 7 years old. We met at a summer camp and one of the things that we bonded over was our love for books. Both of us had been raised to enjoy reading and we each had tons of books stacked in messy piles in our bedrooms.
Upon entering middle school, Jen's love for reading decreased immensely. In fact she never picked up a book to read for pleasure and only read when she had to for school, which she complained about a lot. She went to Catholic school where they had up to 5 books to read every summer break whereas the public school district I attended didn't have summer reading until high school and we only had to read one book per summer. While she complained about books, I remained silent. I missed having a best friend who loved reading like I did.
I remember the first Twilight book being a popular book when I was in my junior year of high school. I remember an outspoken girl reading it during chemistry class. I had seen the book in Borders and advertised at my library but had no interest in reading it. The cover alone sort of turned me off. It looked like just another annoying romance book series - which it is. I didn't care...until Jen made me care.
It was an ordinary summer day. I went to Jen's to hang out for the day and then to sleep over and she showed me the new book she bought - Twilight. She told me how addicted she was to it and I couldn't stop smiling. I was so happy that she was reading again. I trusted her judgement and bought the book myself. I won't lie, I don't look back at reading this series in a negative way. I actually have fond memories of reading the books.
To this day, my friend now loves to read again. It has been almost six years since that summer day. Last time I saw her she asked me to help her organize her books in the order she wants to read them. I couldn't refuse an offer like that! I sometimes forget that she didn't enjoy reading for a long while.
The point of my post is this - I know that there are some books out there that I wish I could ignore or pretend they were never published, like Twilight. But the fact is, everything has a purpose no matter how bad you think it is and while my friend and I despise Twilight now, it was a book that literally changed both our lives in a way...especially hers.
This post is short but to the point. It is a very personal thought that I wanted to share.
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