When it comes to reading, I am a huge nerd. I like some writer's writer stuff, like Faulkner or Delillo, but really what I get wrapped up in is Tolkien. I have read Lord of the Rings twice in the past three years, Children Of Hurin, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit. I've started on The History of Middle Earth, which is an advanced nerd-level journey into Tolkien's works regarding Middle Earth.
Basically, some geeky stuff. The problem I have is ever since I read Lord of The Rings for the first time a few years ago, I have had trouble reading anything else. I read Harry Potter. More nerdy stuff. Recently, I started reading Ulysses and found it too grounded and realistically mundane to be of interest to me (and this, one of the greatest novels of all time) so I started reading Eragon and found it more intriguing. That should be considered literary blasphemy, but the truth is I just can't seem to get into any other form of literature right now. I was so excited about reading James Joyce. . . and then, nothing. I couldn't get the ball rolling.
Traditionally I have been able to read anything I could get my hands on. I don't quite get why I am having this problem now. I read The Chronicles of Narnia in elementary school, and it didn't ruin me for life and turn me into a sci-fi only reader.
The only thing I can think of is that these novels have become a form of escapism for me. They all envelop the reader in a vivid world that has NOTHING to do with the world we actually live in.
This concerns me, because I fear that this could be a gateway drug into some thing I really don't want to get involved in.
Twilight.
If Hot Topic could make up a book about something that would help them sell their pseudo-emo-goth crap, it would be Twilight.
If I ever buy Twilight, I DEMAND an intervention.

Yours truly,

Kyle R. Raker