I Don't Like Bella Swan But I Like The Books!

So I don't know if you know anything about this Twilight craze. I'll briefly explain (SPOILER ALERT!!!!). It is a teen fiction series about a girl, Bella Swan, that falls in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen. I work with books and I wanted to know what was so great about this one. I read the first book in the series, Twilight. I thought it was okay. I actually thought it was kinda of boring. Not a lot happened until the end. In fact, I noticed the movie added stuff (other vampires killing man on boat) to make it interesting enough for film (Hollywood). But I liked it enough that I read the second, New Moon. I just finished it and I thought this one was much better, I was really into it and read it really fast.

This was when I understood it. It is a fantasy about true love. That is why girls and women love it so much (or they love Edward so much - *gag*). But now this doesn't explain why girls as young as eight like the book. Do they really understand it or just read its 'cause its popular?

Anyways, that's for another rant. I want to talk about how much I don't like the main character, Bella, (the character, not the actress). In New Moon, Bella and Edward broke up. Then for like 90% of the book she befriends Jacob. Only she was totally using him and leading him on. She held his hand, they held each other, but she thought of him as only a friend. Then at the end of the book, Edward comes back and it was like "Thanks a lot Jacob but Edward (your mortal enemy) is back, so f-off". I thought this was very cruel. He was younger than her and totally in love with her. She was so selfish.

I am not the only one that thinks the main character is horrible (see Deconstructing Bella Swan). People think she is whiny, dependent, a bad role model, and the series is sexist. I just think that she is not a relatable character. I don't like her personality, the way she talks or acts.

There are people who hate the whole series altogether. In my opinion, they only hate is because it is so popular (or because they just don't like vampires). That's not always a good enough reason to hate something. They just say that because they don't want to conform.

The sad thing . . . even though these books pissed me off so much, I'm still going to read Eclipse.

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Recommended Read: Princess Bride

I just read this book and I loved it. I saw the movie when I was a kid and it has been my favourite ever since. I found the book on my parents' book shelf and finally decided to read it. It's not the type of genre I usually read, but I think because I loved the movie so much, it was easier to enjoy it.

The movie follows the book pretty closely. Most of the actors' lines are straight from the book. The Princess Bride was originally written by a Florinese author, Morgenstern. William Goldman took the book and edited so all of the "good parts" were left. The books begins with some background about why he chose to edit this book. Then throughout the book he comments on which parts he was skipping.

The parts that Goldman wrote made me not like him. And, in my opinion, he took out parts that I would like to read. I would love to read the original book but it is almost impossible to find.

Regardless, it was a great book. I can tell when I really like a book because I read it in only a few days, even when I think I don't have time to read. Most books take me a while to read (like most recently, The Strain) because I don't make as much an effort to read them.

This is a fantasy book about love, princesses, princes, pirates, giants, fighting and more. It's great for all ages, male or female.

Click here to read more about the book and plot.

Other Recommended Reads

Cold Skin

Snowflower and the Secret Fan

The Host

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Police Brutality at University of Western Ontario

Oct 15, 2009

LONDON, Ont. – Officials at the University of Western Ontario in this southwestern Ontario city are defending the violent arrest of a student captured on a video circulating on YouTube.

The video shows the student being held down in a campus building on Wednesday and pummelled by at least five campus and city police officers.

Officers are seen kneeing the student aggressively in the torso, beating him on the back with batons and punching him hard up to a dozen times.

At least one officer is heard yelling "Stop resisting," and then, "Give us your arm."

Elgin Austen, the head of campus police, told a news conference Thursday that by the time he arrived during the arrest, he didn't see "anything out of order" with the level of force being applied.

"It was being conducted consistent with the Ontario Police College and the training that officers have there."

He added that people seeing just the video alone "may not understand what the officers were actually doing."

"What the officers were doing was trying to apprehend a strong individual ... and not injure that person and keep other people around safe."

Austen said the incident began on the seventh and eighth floors of the social sciences building, well before the video was shot.

He said the suspect "was creating safety concerns" on the upper floors and had barricaded himself inside a room.

"Eventually, everything came down to the main floor," where efforts were made to subdue a "disoriented individual."

The student, described as about 6 foot 2 inches and more than 200 pounds, was taken to hospital for observation, then released into custody.

Charged with mischief under $5,000, assaulting a peace officer, resisting arrest and escaping lawful custody is Irnes Zeljkovic, of London.

University spokeswoman Gitta Kulczycki added that the incident needs to be kept in context. The main concern of police was protecting students and faculty, she said.

"The view of the video itself is somewhat disturbing without knowing the context of the full situation," she said.

"In terms of what were the officers trying to do – let's recognize what was occurring."

Kulczycki said an automatic review is conducted in situations like these.

"We will certainly co-operate fully with London police as that occurs," she said

Article from thestar.com

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