Perhaps you have noticed that I’ve been absent for awhile, breaking what started out as a good run of consistent blogging. Most notably, I have not been posting my Teaser Tuesdays entries featuring a snippet from whatever book I’ve been reading. The reason: I recently became a 14-year-old girl and I’ve been hiding out because of it.

Yes, I have discovered the Twilight books. Well, discovered isn’t the right word because I do live in the modern world and you can’t avoid knowing about Twilight. But I had zero interest in reading them and never gave them much thought beyond a quick marvel at how they’re suddenly everywhere. And then one afternoon I was faced with two hours of free time with someone else’s bookshelf and a decision to make. I could either spend my break with Cormac McCarthy’s The Road or Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. While I’d like to say I’m so intellectual that slogging through a grim but important book like The Road is how I spend the precious two-hour break I have from work, frankly in those moments I’m looking to lighten the load. So, it was Twilight for me. I opened the book and will admit, I was hooked. It took me 5 days to read the entire series, which is more than 2,000 pages long. And I’m a pretty slow reader (a real problem for someone with an English degree, let me tell you) so it involved a total lack of basic essentials like food and sleep. Side benefit: I lost the 5 pounds I gained during the holidays. Probably not the healthiest method, but one of the more enjoyable.

The thing is, I haven’t been able to stop reading these books. Every now and then I get caught up in a book and re-read it over and over and unfortunately, this time the book happened to be 1) a pop novel series geared toward teenagers; 2) not exactly a literary, English major-y book; and 3) really, really long.

Anyway, I’ve been kind of hiding away here in the Twilight world, partly because I didn’t want to admit that I, too, had crossed over into the obsession with teenage vampire lovers and also because I didn’t want to leave the cozy little universe that is such a nice reminder of the first flutters of true love. I’m not saying I’m coming out of the closet as a Twi-hard or anything, but I’m willing to re-emerge into real life in Chicago with enough honesty to admit that I’m a fan.

And a member of Team Edward.