A guy reads Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (2009-2011)

The Start of a Journey

Kaleb Nation - 2008My name is Kaleb Nation, and this is the start of a journey.

I am a writer and a radio show host from the United States, and it was not until 2007 that I heard of author Stephenie Meyer. At the time, I did not pay attention to her books, because so often new trends come along for teen readers and disappear just as quickly as they came.

This book, however, has not gone away, and in fact has grown to become a phenomenon, sitting on top of the New York Times bestseller list for almost all of its 35 week run on the charts. Any book that knocks Harry Potter down any at all grabs my attention, but this book not only passed Harry up but continues to stay there.

I realized also the power of Stephenie Meyer when I wrote a post on my regular website, kalebnation.com, spoofing that I had been cast as some character named Edward Cullen in her upcoming movie. Within 24 hours, my website was receiving thousands of visitors simply by saying Stephenie’s name. This same phenomenon happened nearly every time I wrote a blog about her.

Twilight, the novel by Stephenie MeyerThe last straw was when I looked at the front page of my own website, and realized that I had 4 posts about Twilight, and only 2 about my own book series! Besides the constant prodding by my readers that I should bloody well read the books, pressure began to surmount as I watched the frenzy every time Stephenie showed her face in public. An American J.K. Rowling? I had to find out.

And thus, despite the fact that I am a guy, and I do not read vampire romances, nor werewolf romances, nor hobbit romances, nor any other romances, I bought Twilight, the first book in the series, and am now reading it. This website is my journal, as I seek to discover how Stephenie Meyer has cast a spell over nearly every girl in the world.

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72 Responses

  1. I'm sorry to be an anti on a clearly pro-Twilight site, but this comment really pushed my buttons. Specifically the whole 'wtf why dont you read romances??' and 'i promise you'll fall in love with the ideal of edward' parts.

    Perhaps this may be a difficult concept for you to grasp, but not everyone likes romances. Some of us (probably not Kaleb, but my point still stands) find them pointless garbage driven by a hopeless excuse for a plot whose only reason for existence is to lead up to a kiss which isn't even satisfying because of the strictly formulaic nature of these books.

    Secondly, 'i promise you'll fall in love with the ideal of edward'? Really? For starters, Edward Cullen is a misogynistic, manipulative, two-faced bastard. No person in their right mind would fall in love with him. And if – by some faulty logic – one did, they would be hard pressed to find anyone who was even remotely like him, purely because most guys prefer their girls to have at least some dignity.

    Sorry, but that just really pissed me off.

  2. The reason women read romances most of the time is one because they are single and in search of hope that an ideal guy is out there for everyone. Just because you are heartless and obviously cold to the emotions of others doesnt give you the right to knock down a whole genre of literature simply because you, one person out of millions thinks its “pointless garbage driven by a hopeless excuse for a plot whose only reason for existence is to lead up to a kiss which isn't even satisfying because of the strictly formulaic nature of these books.” Writing books like the Twilight Saga had to be one of if not the hardest thing Stephenie Meyer probably ever did. Have you ever written anything that made the greater population of the planet run out to buy your books or crowd the parking lots of theaters around the world? As far as your opinoin of Edward I'm treating that as just an opinion because obviously you are to stupid to see that there is an “Edward” in every romance book. The character as the leading man is ment to be the ideal ment to be the object of every readers desire. Youre the one that needs to show some dignity and even respect for the writers of those books you see as pointless garbage.

  3. I got curious and bought the book app for my Ipod… lets just say Itunes wasn't happy while it waited for my bank to catch up with the bill.

  4. thanks so much for doing this! i have a friend whose reading skills aren't all that great. so i started to read to them and then thought i could find someone else who could read through the internet. well lo and behold i found you thru a comcast twilight extra.

  5. I love twilight I read the series 3 times in 1 week. I drove my mom and dad crazy and even my sister that introduced me to the book. Stephenie Meyer is definetly very talented. I can relate to the book in many ways but I also think of the book as a place to escape when my life gets too rough. I said I didn't want to read it and it was horrible but now every time I mention how much I love it everybody says “I thought you hated it” but now I relize you don't judge a book by it's cover.

  6. i am so inspired that you read the twilight books. i'm a 13yr old girl and i just made my dad read them and he was embarasssed to admit he liked them! rock on!

  7. i am so inspired that you read the twilight books. i'm a 13yr old girl and i just made my dad read them and he was embarasssed to admit he liked them! rock on!

  8. http://www.cafepress.com/werewolves1
    Good luck with the reading. Have fun!!! I bribed my brother to go with me to see Twilight in the theature. At that time I had no idea what it was about, other than a vampire movie. I never liked vampire movies. But the previews I saw on TV interested me. My brother agreed to go with me because he does like vampire movies. As I was walking out of the theature after the movie was over, I was thinking , I wan't to read the book. (Someone I worked with talked about reading the Twilight books all day.) Two weeks later I bought the first three books. (I couldn't find Breaking Dawn until a cople weeks later.) I was hooked! I still am now!
    http://www.cafepress.com/vampiresbite1

  9. I know you have finished the series now, and I think they are absolutely incredible! Although, I must say, I prefer the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling!

  10. Interesting, this mission you choose to take upon yourself. I must admit quite admirable… kinda wish I had thought of it myself, but of course I really wasn't into the Twilight thing when it first started nor am I now. Honestly speaking I did begin reading the series, with high expectations, quite high since it followed Harry Potter and I'm an avid literary vampire fan, being of the Anne Rice generation. However I was gravely disappointed. My disappointment lies in the very heart of the entire story and some of its construction. Lets begin… Well to say the very least Mrs. Meyer's vampire knowledge fails to match any of the vampire lore that has been taught for the past thousand or so years, which solidifies that yes she must have dreamed it all… not to take anything away from her creativity because she was quite creative as of course any writer can easily claim, it just lacks any feel of believability. But of course that's not what interested the readers… not the vampire lore… Its all about the love story, right?
    Now before I start my triad… I must admit, just being honest and fair… that I didn't or better yet couldn't read all four books. I did start and finish the first two, the first I will say was…cute, but the second one… well lets just say that's where she lost me, actually somewhere in the middle of the second one, but being the psychotic reader that I am I couldn't leave it unread so I stopped at the end.
    Back to the love element of this….(I'm not sure what to call it) For starters… where do we start. Okay, Edward is what hundreds of years old and Bella is how old? Exactly. So you got this guy that of course is immortal so he has a few hundred years of experience under his belt and then you have this young high school girl who has yet to experience life on her own, I'm having trouble seeing where the attraction comes in. Oh of course Edward was overly enticed by the special scent of her blood, commonly known as blood lust… Now that I think about it why are all these vampires trolling high school halls when there are plenty of college campuses that could provide a much better back drop, honestly what could they be learning that they don't already know at this high school, history…really. Continuing… so Edward is attracted to this little girl, like every vampire that comes in contact with her, because of the special scent of her blood… all the while you got poor Jacob over here who has pretty much known Bella since they were what five, making mud pies together… in love with her for her…hmm and why does she have trouble picking who the better suitor is? Maybe its because vampires control minds, one of they're regular powers is attraction by all, just maybe… Every one and I mean every one was attracted to all of the Cullens except for the Native Amer. living there, because they knew what they were and could see through what some may call “vampire magnetism”. Moving on… now that we have established who likes who, or did we? I was also quite confused about who Bella truly likes or loves, which ever verb you prefer. Of course she was quite smitten with Edward, I mean who wouldn't be, he was mysterious, he had unnaturally youthful good looks, he was brilliant in every subject at HIGH school, and of course he has oodles and oodles of money… come on people Edward was vampire.. oh and lets not forget how hard to tried not to show any interest in Bella when every other guy was drooling over her, why wouldn't he, the coolest guy in HIGH school not want her…of course he couldn't be that cool… only a vampire could. Oh lets not forget about poor Jacob just yet, like we said he loved Bella for Bella… quick side note, she really wasn't that lovable, unless of course you go for that whole depressed woe is me thing… anyway you got Jacob over here giving it the old romantic try but of course failing due to the fact at the beginning he's a regular guy with a crush against a vampire… but now that Edward is gone and he's finally working his way in his duty to his clan turns him into something like a werewolf.
    ( Now for another bout of honesty, I do truly admire Mrs. Meyers nontraditional way of writing the werewolves in her story, taking from the Native Amer. culture and educating readers of other traditional lores that are out there, cheers to you Mrs. Meyers.)
    After Bella finally recognizes the real possibilities in Jacob, Edward causes a fuss, maybe he thought she was dead because she got over him and was in love with someone else, maybe… So now Jacob is a full fledged werewolf and Bella is really starting to dig Jacob but Edward pops up….we go through some mortal danger, bad guys die, Bella is saved.. but now shes acting confused as if she may actually have some feelings for Jacob, Edward doesn't worry, “I'm a vampire what I got to worry about” definitely not sunshine… now she's doing the back and fourth thing for a lil bit, sounds a lot like a player to me, or maybe its the mind of a young girl who has yet to experience life outside of her parents house by herself, just maybe. Fast forward past the old man and young girl sex scene made for High school girls to Bella being pregnant…(teenage pregnancy is rampant and we wonder why)…a lil further still to Jacob being in love with Bella's and Edwards unborn child, sounds like the cycle almost repeating it self all over again, except this time its an adult werewolf in love with an unborn vampire infant… One of them things that make you go..hmmm….

  11. I know, anyone who had the chance or gumption to read my last post…if it's still there… is probably wonder what more could I say. Well as I had mentioned briefly this (Twilight) was the out come of the authors dreams. Now they say dreams are many things, one being the reflections of our being or our thoughts, since a persona is the summation of our thoughts. And with that being said, Twilight cause to me heavily reflect on dream interpretation. You be the critic…

  12. Oh, good luck my friend. My friends at school and I are some of the few thirteen year old, female Twilight haters. I couldn't get past the fifth page of the first book. I wish you the best of success.
    God bless you and give you strength.

  13. Stephenie Meyer will never surpass Harry Potter in my book! Which, by the way, is currently Bran Hambric:The Farfield Curse.

  14. Good luck with the reading.
    I met (Kaleb) when I was watching the DVD “Twilight in Forks : The Saga of The Real Town”. I bought it and I though how interesting would be his website. I'm an English student from Brazil and also a “twilightguy”. Lol…. =P I though that I could practice my English visiting his website often.
    I have the DVD's of the saga and I bought the books recently.
    I'll read Kaleb comments everytime when I finish a capter of the book to compare my opnion with his and to practice my English of course. Lol…
    Kaleb's site is really good. Congrats Kaleb!
    If someone wants to keep in touch with me, being friends and helping me with my English, add me please at:
    Skype: thiagomagnataok
    Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ThiaG0nLine
    Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Thiagohsm...

  15. i absolutely love the twilight saga and i'm sure you will too Nathan

    i actually just saw you on the twilight in forks the saga of the real town what inspired me to visit the site  

  16. Me nevertheless prepared to youll. This can be the type of hand to get certain do that your current difficulties false information absolutely electronic many blogs and forums. Be thankful for very own berbagi this method top doctor.

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