Who Says America Isn't Reading?

I hear complaints all the time that Americans are no longer reading, yet reading trends have swept the country. First it was Harry Potter, and now it is Twilight. Evidence of our country's love for Twilight came in the form of a list of the most popular names for babies in 2009 (the link here is to the article on MSNBC). The top two names in our country are Isabella and Jacob. While Edward didn't make the top list, a surprising leap of the name Cullen came from 2008 to 2009. I wonder why Harry, Ron, and Hermione didn't top the lists of the preceding years...

The Twilight phenomenon fascinates me. I am one of the many readers in our country (and beyond) who gulped the books down when they came out, but now looking back on the series, I get bugged by themes presented in the books. I get mad that Bella is such a wishy-washy character, and I feel that the love presented in the books is an idealized, yet archaic form of what love could be. It's funny how angry I get, but I can't deny the addictive nature of the books. I know that if I were to pick up Twilight right now, I would read all four books without stopping all over again. Just like I know I can't pick up the first Harry Potter without continuing on to read all seven books in the series. (As a side note, I do not think Twilight holds a candle to the Harry Potter series. I'm simply using it as a comparison.)

Do you have any books like that in your life? Ones that if you take the time to think about them, you wouldn't want to read them, yet you still love them?

Voting for the book I'll be reading once I finish my current one is still going on in the left-hand sidebar. Please make your way over there to cast your vote so you can have a say in what book I'll read next.

Happy reading!