i don't believe you, flightless bird

Someone at work casually told me one day that there's been a lot of discussion going on in forums and Twilight fansites etc on how this song by Pink is perfect for the 'Edward leaves Bella' scene in New Moon - the second instalment of the Twilight Saga that will be hitting the big screens worldwide in a matter of days.

I love the song. And hey, the wordings in the chorus section are indeed perfect for the above said scene.

I can hear many of you there go: *Gasps* "Jac is into this whole Twilight shite too?" *Faints*

Okay. I am indeed quite embarrassed.

After seeing how so many of my friends have succumbed to this teenage romance trend (both the book and the movie), and not having anything I really wanted to read while browsing in Borders, I picked up the first book of Stephenie Meyer's bestselling Twilight series purely out of curiosity.

I hadn't been able to put it down and gave up an entire night's sleep to finish it. Six days later, I completed all four books in the series and the movie on top of a very busy work week jam packed with meetings. That was a lot of sleep lost. I amaze myself sometimes.

And my verdict?

1) The movie sucks. I'm referring to Twilight of course. The about-to-be-screened New Moon looks more promising from the trailer, but all trailers are made to impress, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. I would probably go catch New Moon just for comparison's sake. I don't think Robert Pattinson is as hot as everyone says although he definitely looks better in his vampire self than in his human self IMHO. And they probably should send the whole cast to acting school or something.

2) The books are something else. I wouldn't say much about the language or writing style, what do you expect, it's YOUNG ADULT fiction. What I find intriguing is the many refreshing theories on vampires and werewolves. The one that took me most by surprise is the author's explanation for vampires avoiding sunlight; that had me chuckling and letting my imagination wander to visualise the whole 'Edward and Bella in the meadow' scene. I found the rendition of that scene (many scenes actually) in the movie extremely disappointing because I actually saw something more magnificent in my mind.

3) So what about the love-love romantic shite? I have never been into romance fiction much and was initially a bit put off by how much focus was placed on this area for this series. But after a while, I kinda got absorbed into the whole Cullen family bonding thing such that even the overplayed Edward-Bella-Jacob love triangle became tolerable and got more enjoyable as I progressed to the 3rd book.

So if you have condemned this series just like I had initially, you may want to give it a chance after all. If you have near-zero tolerance for anything romantic, you'll probably need a bit of perseverence to be able to progress through the books to appreciate the sub plots and mythical storytelling before you get sucked into the world of vampires, werewolves and half-half beings.

Here's sharing with you my current favourite song which happens to be the song Edward and Bella danced to at the end of the Twilight movie.