I have a bone to pick with you people

OK, so not all of you. ;-) Just whoever recommended those vampire books.

Starting in August, I've been hearing people talking about the Stephenie Meyer vampire books. The first person was Michael's mom, who mentioned to Michael that she was thinking of getting me one of them for my birthday. Michael--after asking me if I'd heard of them, which I hadn't--discouraged her, saying he didn't think I was into vampire books. (I enjoy watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I wouldn't say I'm into vampire stories as a genre.)

Then, people started raving about them on message boards I frequent. People who usually recommend the latest literary novel and intelligently discuss Shakespeare. Once I was aware of them, it seemed that everyone was talking about them.

So when I talked to my sister this week and she mentioned she had read them and enjoyed them, I decided that maybe I wouldn't wait until January to read them. I have been in a funk this week with Michael gone, a good fluffy book might be just the ticket.

I was in luck. The first book had just been returned to the library and I was able to check it out on Wednesday while waiting for EM to finish his trumpet lesson. It has about 500 pages; I stayed awake until 2:30 reading.

Thankfully, the library is closed on Thursdays. When I picked the kids up from school on Friday, I stopped at the library to drop off the first book and see if the other two were still in. They were, so I checked them both out. The librarian commented on my "heavy reading." Heh. I was quick to disabuse her of that notion. True, the books have 500 pages each, but they are fluff. Pure fluff. Literary candy corn.

And just as addictive.

I finished book two at 9:00 that night, and decided that I would start, just start, book three. Heh. Seven and a half hours later, I finished the last page and turned out the light.

But here is my real complaint. I thought this was a trilogy. Three books. Read and enjoyed. But book three doesn't have the sort of finality one expects from the conclusion to a trilogy, so looked at the covers more closely. Just as I feared. It's a series. One cover even used the term saga.

And the next book isn't due out until October 2008.

*sigh* I don't like series. Rather, I love series once they are all finished. I hate waiting for authors to finish series. For one thing, they tend to want, you know, a life. Sometimes they get fickle about finishing, or, heaven forbid, die before they finish. And I'm convinced that the longer an author works on a series, the more likely he or she is to make changes to the characters that I don't like.

It's going to be a long year.

(And no, I'm really not mad. And yes, in spite of the series thing, I'm glad I read them now.)