Twilight Book Club

So I officially finished reading Twilight this afternoon. I was supposed to have read it by Wednesday, but life happens. Book Club was really great. At first I was rather daunted by the task of facilitating. I love the book and everything, but what were we going to talk about for an hour. I mean you can only gush for so long. Also the discussion had to be limited to Twilight only because some of the girls had not read the next two and didn't want it to be spoiled. On Monday I began reading it, for the umteenth time. While reading I had sticky notes and a pen next to me to write down any brilliant or not so brilliant thought that I had. I was still not quite on my 'A' game, so some of them might be rather random. I just tried to think like an English teacher and come up with discussion topics that would get people talking or thinking about the book in a new way. I still had about half of the book left to read on Wednesday, but as I finished reading it yesterday and today, I came up with some new questions that I think would have been interesting also. So for those of you at book club, skip to the bottom for the new stuff, it starts at question 16. And just so you all can see how dedicated I am, here is a picture of my book after I finished reading it today. (I ran out of green post-its so I had to move on to white). Below the picture are the questions/topics that I came up with.

1. Phoenix is the exact opposite of Forks - hot, sunny, busy . . . It's interesting how Bella's view changes throughout the book - how one person can change your whole life.

2. Sacrifice is a theme in this book. Everyone makes some sort of sacrifice. What are some of these sacrifices?

3. Bella says that she doesn't relate well to people. She thinks there is "a glitch in [her] brain." When she gets to Forks though, she has no problem making new friends, although she's not really the instigator and then the 'people' that she best gets along with aren't people at all. They are vampires.

4. It's interesting that this "glitch" if you will makes her impervious to Edward's mind reading abilities. Why can't Edward read her mind, but Alice and Jasper's powers still work on her?

5. Several times in the book Bella refers to the Cullens as angels. Isn't that an interesting juxtaposition. Vampires are usually the enemies of angels.

6. This isn't really a discussion question, I just like the comparison (simile for those of you English lovers) where Bella says "I made the Cowardly Lion look like the terminator." This is such a vivid comparison. I feel like that statement alone told me a great deal about Bella.

7. Edward thinks that he is the bad guy. Although he never does bad things. Why do we come up with negative notions about ourselves? Why don't we want to think of ourselves as the super hero, like Bella thinks that Edward is? (This really isn't my problem. I probably should not always think that I'm the super hero, but it makes me happy, so who cares.)

8. It's interesting that Bella faints at the smell of blood and Edward survives on it. In a lot of ways Bella and Edward are complete opposites. It's a good case of opposites attracting.

9. Stephenie Meyer changed some of the well known mythical facts (oxymoron?) about vampires such as their aversion to daylight, the sun can kill them, they sleep in coffins, they only come out at night, etc. Do you like these changes? Do they make the story and characters seem more believable?

10. Bella says that "making decisions was the painful part for me, the part I agonized over. But once the decision was made, I simply followed through - usually with relief that the choice was made." Which is harder for us, the decision or the follow through? (I personally don't like to make simple decisions, like choosing what to eat or what do for the evening, although sometimes I'm frustrated with the choices others make. Bigger, harder decisions come rather naturally - it's the follow through, the day to day work that gets hard for me.)

11. If you were dating or friends with a vampire, what character traits or myths would scare you the most? For me it would be that I knew I smelled delicious to him. I'd be afraid that one day I wouldn't be worth resisting.

12. I hate how Bella is constantly thinking that she is not worthy of Edward, especially because of his looks? Why are girls so quick to put themselves down based on appearance?

13. Edward says that Bella "is exactly [his] brand of heroin." What things are we addicted to, or have a hard time resisting, that we are constantly around? Why don't we try to avoid them?

14. Vampires all seem to have some sort of super power. If you were a vampire, what power do you think you'd have? What power would you want? Are they the same? I think that I would be super smart - genius smart. What I'd really like though would be to be able to fly. I don't know if that's possible for vampires, but hey this is hypothetical anyway!

15. If you were a parent do you think that this would be an appropriate book for your 10 to 14 year old to read? Does it portray values that you agree with? My cousin Haley gave me this question. I really hadn't thought about it before. I don't think I'd let my child read it until they were at least 15. I think at that age they won't be as likely to believe that life and relationships are like this. I thought that this was just a fun, entertaining book, but as I thought about it I realized that there are a lot of things in this book that I don't think would be appropriate for my child to read - boys staying in your room overnight, being with someone 24/7, not listening to your parents. Those are just a few.

*THIS IS WHERE I LEFT OFF ON WEDNESDAY. ALL OF THE QUESTIONS AFTER THIS ARE NEW. I CAME UP WITH THEM OVER THE PAST TWO DAYS.*

16. I love the idea that Edward presents about "rising above . . . the hand we've been dealt." How many of us do that? Do we want to?

17. Bella asks Edward several times about the visions that Alice has. Each time Edward moves on to another subject. What kind of things would Alice have seen that would make Edward uncomfortable?

18. As a vampire you have the time, patience and ability to do many things. If you turned into a vampire, what things would you be most excited to do? For me, I'd want to be proficient at many languages. I think it would be so cool to know and converse to anyone I wanted.

19. Edward is probably 100+ years old and Bella is what, 17 years old. Can a relationship really work with such an age gap? What would be some of the drawbacks? Perks? And we thought that over 15 years was bad!!!

20. How often have you had to hurt someone for their own good? Why did you do it? Were you justified? Bella does it instead of telling the truth to Charlie and then to Edward, were those good choices? Would you have counseled her differently?

21. One of the things that I hate about Bella is that she is always putting herself down. At the end she doesn't even think that she is worth saving. How can you help someone like this? We all feel that way sometimes, but I also think that there is a great part of ourself that is selfish, that wants to be worth it all!

22. If given the choice, would you want to live forever? Say that this transformation would occur at any time of your choosing, would the pain be worth it - the pain to you, your friends and your family?

23. Bella wants to be an equal partner to Edward. Do you think that this relationship would have been possible if the roles had been reversed? If Bella was the vampire and Edward the human. I don't. I think it would take a very strong, secure man to be with such a perfect woman. I just can't see a guy being willing to be the lesser half.

24. Obviously vampires don't exist, but did you believe the reality that Stephenie Meyer created? Did you want to believe that vampires exist? My friend Lisa came up with this one. I like fantasy. When I was reading it, I totally believed it. I think we want to believe in the impossible. It makes life fun!

25. One of the themes in this book is choice. Everyone makes choices. Even the cover represents the forbidden fruit that Eve chose. What are some of the choices that were made in this book? I can't take credit for this one either. My friend Marie came up with it. I liked it and thought it would be a good addition to this list.