This Twilight Series is a real juggernaut, cramming all the bestseller lists. The first three are Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. The eagerly-awaited (apparently) Breaking Dawn comes out in a couple of weeks (and is #1 on Amazon).

These things are cramming the front of my local bookstores. All I can gather is that the series is (1) teen oriented; (2) female audience oriented; and (3) about some teen girl who's in love with a vampire.

Any stories to tell about these? Is the latest "thing" for the kiddies, and is it headed for Harry Potter levels of awareness (all right, Harry Potter stands alone, but you know what I mean -- the next big literature for young people that crosses over to adults?)

My daughter has read several of these books. I'll mention this thread to her tomorrow and maybe she can tell you more about them.

i've never read any of this series, but all Time-Warner seems to be pushing the heck out of it...between multiple features in recent Entertainment Weekly and Time magazines(who are coronating Meyer as the new Rowling), i gather that they are kinda like the Anne Rice vampire novels for teens...not to mention a movie adaption currently filming...

granted, i really don't know what i'm talking about...

I LOVE STEPHINE MEYER!!! me and meg have read all the books and we love. them. but yeah its a lot like Anne Rice for teens. i even know some guys who are obsessed with the books too which kinda shocked me,

Are they real dark and hard-core, or are they sort of vampire-lite? Does the vampire do heroic things or good things, or is she in love with a vampire who kills people at night to live (like Lestat)?

I like my vampires like I like my ....ok, I admit I have no ending for this.

Amanda says it's kind of both, but more romantic than dark.

My niece reads these.

From her description of them, they are angsty teen romance novels set within the vampire mythos.

Here's the trailer from the movie:

(yes, there's already a movie)

the movie is good but it could have been a whole lot better! im not really looking towards the next movie because its also my least favorite book. all she (Bella) does is mope and whine and cry throughout the whole book!

I kinda hate vampires. There's very little about the whole vampire mythology that appeals to me in any way. I resisted Twilight for the longest time, at first because my 18 year old sister swore it was crap, and then because I heard it was about vampires, and I was like, whatever, I don't care about vampires. So I resisted. I really did. And then a friend at work started reading the books and begged me to give it a shot, and loaned me her copy.

And I finished that thing in two nights, then immediately got on Amazon and ordered the entire series. Less than two weeks later, I'd burned through all four of them (and these are some hefty books). I might even be ready to re-read them, but I've loaned them out.

I love reading, and I love books. But it's rare that I enjoy a book so much I feel sad when I've finished it, and then immediately begin pushing it on everyone I know because I loved it so much I feel compelled to share it with others. That's how I feel about this series. I wouldn't necessarily say they are high quality. They're very girly, and some of the language is very high-strung. The target audience is definitely teenage girls, but my friends and I are late 20s/early 30s and we're acting like crack fiends about them. It may interest some of you to know that the author is Mormon, and as such, her books actually have some pretty strong Mormon values woven in. That didn't detract me from the material at all, but I mention it because I know some parents of teens who'd feel more comfortable knowing that there's no premarital sex or coarse language in this series.

All in all, I can't recommend them highly enough, as long as you go in knowing it's aimed at chicks, and not necessarily fine literature. And the movie was just so-so in my opinion. I resisted that too, and all of a sudden my sister and I found ourselves on a late-night secret trip to the dollar theatre to check it out - mainly because we were finished with the books but needed a Twilight fix of some kind. If they'd been selling Twilight crack on the street, I'd have bought that too.

I'm starting to think that "Lorie" might really be a girl...

I HAVE BOOBS.

There is photographic proof.

Is this like the tweeniebopper version of an Anne Rice novel, then?

Not those Anne Rice novels.....I mean....not those "Beauty in chains" ones I've never actually read, but just read about and stuff.....

Hey. Your last name is your first name and your first name is your last name. That's tricksy.

It's to foil the investigations of "girl" detectives.

These books are like Dan Brown's books: inexplicably popular and written very poorly.

My soon to be sister in law is about 25. She doesn't read books. Ever.

A friend at work made her see the movie

and she bought the books and has devoured them, quickly.

Owns the movie.

Can't wait for the next one.

After your post here, Lorie, I'm going to HAVE to stop playing around about reading this series. I've had them all for weeks, seductively taunting me everytime I walk through our living room, but have yet to read the first page. I mentioned to a very good friend of mine that I was interested in them after seeing the movie and listening to my co-workers fawning all over the story of Edward and Bella. She swears they are the best things she's ever feasted her eyes upon and sent me the series in hardback from Amazon the day I talked to her about it. This woman is 58 yrs. old. I don't know WHY that wasn't enough for me submerse myself in them right then and there.