Several times in the last few months I’ve found myself ranting about cultural conceptions of what makes a man attractive/sexy/hot, and how they’re trending toward waspish, emo, useless boys at the expense of…well…the alternatives. More than once this rant has involved cussing Twilight and sparkly Edward as both a consequence of the trend, and a major dynamo powering its proliferation. I am, of course, completely right in everything I say during this rant, even though I’ve never read Twilight and everything I know about it comes from movie trailers and other people ragging on it.
Unfortunately, it’s possible that some day, somebody will not accept my word as sufficient evidence for my eternal rightness in all things. It’s conceivable that somebody may insist that I should actually know what I’m talking about before I saddle a popular book series with all the blame for a cultural trend that really hast its roots at least as far back as David Bowie.
So I’m wondering; to read, or not to read? Suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous teen hormones, or carry on in happily ventful ignorance?
Anaea Lay 
If you must read, do it with a red pen and note pad to keep track of particularly bad or “so bad it’s good” chapters and moments. You may as well have an instrument to take your rage out on the book itself if you read it.
I’ll be getting it from the library if I do, and so will not be writing in it. I absolutely will be taking notes for detailed blogging of the experience, though.
My recommendation: Read Cleolinda’s recaps of the books. It gives you real quotes and a very strong reading of the books which she is horrifyingly addicted to even while she’s choking with horror.
First one is http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/602881.html
I read the set. The first is really just marysue ya romance with some disturbing subtext. They then spiral downhill so rapidly that my boyfriend threatened to take them away from me because I was screaming WTF at random intervals and scaring the wits out of him.
I found Cleolinda’s recaps while I was reading the second book and it made the whole process much more enjoyable. She’s funny. But quite honestly, you could talk intelligently about the books with just her text and never bothering with the original.