Twilight madness: will the addiction ever end?

After seeing New Moon last night, I broke down and bought the entire series. I broke two cardinal rules of mine: (1) spending money frivolously and (2) buying books. Several months ago, I made a pact with myself not to buy books because I never re-read them. Instead I borrow them from the library. But addictions seem to know no bounds and I'm in desperate need of a Twilight fix.

In June, I blogged about my Twilight obsession, which started innocently enough. One day while walking pass the express reads shelf at my local library, I spotted the book Twilight. I had heard about the book from others and I decided to see what the hype was about. After the second chapter, I was hooked. I borrowed the three remaining books from a friend and in a period of three weeks I had read the entire series.

In my first blog posting about Twilight, I wrote the following: I know writing about this is terribly silly as I am a 30-something woman who has a young child, but in the last three weeks I have tapped into my 17-year-old excitable teenage self by reading Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. I have sat for hours, turning page after page, reading. I’ve stayed up late, reading. I’ve continued reading while dear husband has attempted to have conversations with me, to no avail because I’m too busy reading. I have discussed the books with friends. I have watched the Twilight movie. (And I’d watch it again if it wasn’t for the fact I’m too cheap to order it again from Rogers on Demand). And I have watched the New Moon trailer on the Internet several times. Oh, for the love of God, I don’t know how I got hooked on a story involving a vampire and a naïve, but clumsy teenaged girl, but I did and now I’m going through withdrawal since finishing the series.

After that blog post, my Twilight addiction slowly eased. At the time I was glad I had borrowed the books because I'd be tempted to read them over and over again. However, my addiction has returned with a vengeance after seeing New Moon last night. I, with four other friends, lined up to see the movie. We bought our tickets in advance. We were squished like sardines, waiting for the theatre doors to open. And once they did open, it was pandemonium. People ran towards the doors, pushing people out of the way, squeezing through the narrow doors. At one point, I thought the movie employee trying to do crowd control was going to be trampled on by excitable teenage girls eager to see Edward and Bella's return to the silver screen. It was craziness. But definitely worth it.

Although we weren't all able to sit together, me and another friend found two seats together near the front of the theatre. Despite our close proximity to the screen, they were pretty darn good seats. As expected, there were passionate screams when Edward first appeared on the screen. More screams were heard during Bella's first scene with Jacob. I cried when Edward left Bella. I quickly mopped up the tears with my sleeve, hoping no one saw me cry. The movie stayed true to the book and there was even a cliffhanger ending for those who haven't read the series.

When I came home last night, I was definitely on a Twilight high. A friend called this morning, telling me to turn the channel to MTV because they had a behind-the-scenes look of the making of Twilight and New Moon movies. So the addiction that I thought I had conquered when I finished the series is back. And the only way for me to quell the temptation to break into my local library branch and scour the stacks for Twilight books is to buy the entire series.

And that's what I did. I went to Shoppers Drug Mart and bought the entire series. (Tip: if you are looking for new books, check out Shoppers. For a pharmacy, they do have a good selection of books at reasonable prices). By buying the books at Shoppers, I was also feeding another addiction: collecting Optimum points.

After quickly snatching the books off the shelf, I powered walked to the cash. While paying for the books, I had a conversation with the teenage boy cashier.

Cashier: So you are buying the Twilight series?

Me: Yep. I borrowed the books from a friend, but I really need to read the series again after seeing the movie last night.

Cashier: So you have read the books and seen the movies and you are buying the series?

Me: Yes. I can't really explain it. (How can a 30-something woman explain to a teenage boy that she has addiction to a series that involves vampires and a klutzy girl?)

Cashier: That's kind of funny.

Kind of funny is the understatement of the year. I can't explain my addiction or my decision to invest $50 into books I've already read. But the way I see it is that I have at least another two movies, even three if Breaking Dawn is split into two movies, to see. And if I have this kind of reaction after seeing New Moon, I'm sure I'll have the same experience in the future. And I read the books so quickly that I owe it to myself to re-read them again before I see any more movies.

So please excuse me as I've got four books to devour.