Very simply, the fact that these sort of people would brave a highly judgmental and vocal crowd of thousands of nerds says volumes for their sanity, not to mention what they might consider devotion.  Comic-Con is a place for geeks to enjoy themselves once a year and indulge in all of their favorite geek activities, which runs the gamut from comic book-based movies to science fiction TV shows, but definitely does not include the world of Twilight.  A new (and not-yet-real) panel for the announcement of a new Blade movie?  Sure.  But a place for a bunch of screaming females to fawn over the upcoming release of slow-motion shirtless males?  Not so much.  If Blade is an example of nerd-acceptable vampirism, then Twilight is its antithesis.

I hate when people say a book isn't worth reading just because they didn't like it. Your opinion is not more important or better then any of the people who did like the book and saying that it's not worth reading just because you didn't like it is pitiful. Not to mention the fact that you are a middle aged man and it's very much a teenage girl book. an there is Vampire sex, something you wouldn't know about as you never read past the first one.

Hi Anna,

Thanks for playing, but you're wrong.

My opinion IS more important than all of the crying, whining teenage girls and post-menopausal women who claim this book is the second coming of Hamlet. You know why?

Because I don't let sappy pulp-based emotions rule my judgment of something's literary value.

Me not liking the book has nothing to do with just not liking it on a reader level... this book is not worth reading, by anyone, because it has zero literary value. And I believe I've said that many times in this thread already.

I'm glad you took the time to attack me and my very informed opinions. I really appreciate it. Maybe next time you should do a little background on who I am before you decide to slander me as being "pitiful", and I think you'll find that my thoughts on books are usually insightful, if not balanced.

Finally, what I said on here is no different than what the majority of the literary community of America (maybe the world?) said. Ask college Literature professors what they think about this "novel". Ask high school English teachers. Ask snooty librarians. Maybe you can fool "The Today Show", but sum of us iz just two damm smarte...

Most of them will tell you this is nothing but unmitigated pandering to a tear-stained audience that doesn't deserve to be in the same room as some of the modern greats, much less raised on the same pedestal, despite how often it gets compared to Harry Potter.

Good try though. Taking a stab in the dark at someone you don't know is always a good idea, especially when it's emotionally driven.

Enjoy your vampire porn.

--Kyle

Probably the singularly most terrible book I've ever read.

I went into this book expecting something interesting and vampire-based (like a pre-ILOVEJESUS Anne Rice novel, or an early Laurell K. Hamilton book), so I didn't come in with any prejudice.

The beginning of the book was tolerable, and I attributed alot of the fluff and nonsense to the introduction of the characters, setting, etc. But I was wrong.

The majority of this book reads like the memoirs of a horny-but-goodgirl teenager, stuck in the world of vampires for no apparent reason. Five pages of describing how a shirt clings to Edward's "muscular chest" because of the "dampness of the fog", while also vaguely describing her girlish reactions, is way too much for the average reader, let alone an audience that veers outside the preteen/post-menopausal range.

Not only does the majority of this book equate to female-oriented softcore porn (like those trash novels you can get at CVS), but Meyer throws out everything interesting and seductive about vampires. Granted, most authors "reinvent" the vampire legend for their works, but she seems to have made a bullet-point list to intentionally discount them. Sunlight? Nope, just makes them shiny. Evil on the inside? No, because some of them drink animals' blood. Crosses/garlic/silver? Laughable.

So basically, he's not a vampire. He's just some sort of superhuman character with no flaws, who lives forever, has super-strength, and feeds off the blood of animals. No weaknesses, only godlike existence.

Great.

Another large discussion point when reviewing this book is it's obvious literary failure. Did Meyer ever graduate from middle school? If so, how can she be so completely oblivious to the standard plot model? 90% of the book is just the inane ramblings of a high school girl who buys clothes, gossips, and semi-dates someone at school. And then Meyer gets within the last handful of pages in the book and seems to think "OH SHIT! I NEED DRAMA!" and throws in some random vampire fight.

Then the book ends.

Full of literary value, Meyer is obviously on par with JK Rowling, Tolkien, and probably even Stephen King.

Finally, many of what readers assume are Meyer's "morals" that she wishes to impart on the audience are actually just Mormon indoctrination. They aren't obvious in this first installment, but I have it on good authority that the later works are extremely obvious in their moral and religious intent. Knowing this, if you go through the book, you can pick out essentially the premise of the entire religion.

This is not acceptable. Yes, authors have a right to religion. Yes, they have a right to impart certain morals, themes, and suggestions on us. But they should not indoctrinate us. C.S. Lewis managed to write epic stories that used the themes of Christianity without preaching. And he is just one of many who accomplish this strange-to-Meyer feat.

All in all, a terrible book. Not worth reading. Ever.

And I don't plan on seeing the movie, nor reading any of the book's sequels