Every so often, a culture phenomenon comes around and unites several million people for a cause.

In the future, historians will look back on these years and note the rise in popularity in young adult novels; Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter are the two most prominent. With an increasing amount of children and young adults sitting in front of the TV all day, it is quite an accomplishment by these books to get them away from the screens and pull them into a fictional world of adventure.

All those die-hard fans of Twilight, a vampire romance novel like no other, are probably rereading Breaking Dawn, the fourth installment in this bestselling series that just came out today. I don’t blame them, because as I’m writing this I have my copy sitting on my desk.

Twilight Moms, The Twilight Guy- thousands of fan sites are devoted to this book. It’s a little ironic that the book that’s pulling people away from their computers to read it is bringing them back to read Stephenie Meyer’s website, or another site to get their daily Twilight fix.

My point? Media and literature are playing an increasingly larger role in society. Books are creating ‘fandoms’ that brings different countries and people together over breathtaking stories and relatable characters.

Are these fandoms a good thing? Can an obsession go to far? Yes, and yes. But for now, there’s no harm done in being ’sucked’ into a vampire love story.

(bad pun intended)

-Rika