Brida

Yesterday evening I finsihed Brida by Paulo Coelho. I've read a number of his books and Brida didn't disappoint me. The story is about an Irish girl, Brida, who is learning about the world of being a witch. It's difficult to write the word "witch" without imagining ugly green women in black robes and point hats, or people being turned into other creatures with magic potions. This was not that kind of witch. Throughout the book, Brida learns about the world and magic as it has passed down from generations of spirituality. The strong tie to Christianity was very interesting as well.
In every one of Coelho's books there is a passage or two that really striked home with me. This was that passage:
"...the age of miracles was returning, and no one could remain indifferent to the changes the world was beginning to experience. Within a few years, the power of the Tradition of the Sun would reveal itself in all its brilliance. Anyone not already followiung their own path would begin to feel dissatisfied with themselves and be forced to make a choice: they would either have to accept an existence beset with disappointment and pain or else come to realize that everyone was born to be happy. Having made their choice, they would have no option but to change..."
It reminded me of my latest motto: "I would rather be happy". Given any number of choices, whenever possible, I will choose to be happy.
Coelho is a beautiful storyteller and his books are multidimentional. One of the things I like best about them is that if I feel like really contemplating them, he gives plenty to work with, but at the same time his stories can be taken simply as stories.

I saw the bandwagon, it circled my block a couple of times while I toyed with the idea of hopping on, but finally let it pass.

I read the Twilight Saga. It took me two and a half weeks. In all fairness, the first three books took me a week, and the final one was the last week and a half.
I'll break it down a wee bit:
Twilight: so-so. Lots of brooding, lots of whining, lots of swooning. Some story. Definitely an easy read. By the end though, I was interested and wanted to keep going to book two.
New Moon: also lots of brooding, quite a lot of whining, and some swooning. Mostly I just found myself tearing through it to get to the end and the exciting bits. I like Jacob.
Eclipse: Not so much whining. Lots of brooding though. Jacob changed quite a lot...can't say as I liked him much anymore. This was definitely my favorite of the series though.
Breaking Dawn: ...just plain weird. I didn't like it. The characters seemed to have a totally different voice and like all of a sudden Stephanie Meyer didn't have to hold on to any shred of realism anymore and just went hog wild with mystical powers and bizarre events. I'm really not sure how they'll make it into a movie without it being totally grotesque and creepy.

All of that being said, I liked the Twilight movie, and I really enjoyed New Moon the movie (I'm fairly sure I'm branding myself as some sort of creepy perv by saying that Jacob is daaaaaaamn fine! He-llo!).
For your reading enjoyment, check out this blog entry I found online: "Reasons Why Twilight the Movie May Be Better Than The Book".
Points 3, 5, 11, 22, and 27 really hit home for me.

But, as my dear friend Mare said when we were discussing the first two books "Imagine if we'd been reading these ten or fifteen years ago! I'd have my bedroom plastered with Twilight posters!" And I concur.