Books Read in July

Amazingly enough, I read three books this month.



Eclipse and Breaking Dawn were the final two books in the Twilight series. Once I picked up the first book there was no stopping. I loved the series, and although there is a lot of controversy over the final book, Breaking Dawn, I really thought it was wonderful. Other than... well, I won't put spoilers here, let's just say that I'd like to see evil sadistic vampires be torn to bits and leave it at that.

Last month, I also mentioned that I really liked having read the books after seeing the movies because it gave me a glimpse into how much genius it took to change a book into a screenplay. I could read the book and appreciate the need to shrink 200 pages into two minutes of screen time. This month, I finished the series and two days later went to see Eclipse in the theater. I did not have the same "genius mushy gushy" feeling. I was disappointed.

And so it goes that most likely, the book and your own imagination is much better than anyone could translate to the screen-- there simply isn't enough time to get everything from the book into the movie and there were scenes I desperately missed. I have a feeling though that once the movie comes out on video enough time will have elapsed, and I will have had enough time to rewatch the first two movies, that I will love the third for itself. Without comparison to a book series and love story that comes in second-- behind Jamie and Claire from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.

The final book, by Judith McNaught, is a reread. Enough time had passed that I couldn't remember every word, so I picked it up again.