Eye-opener

I regard myself as being a rather eloquent speaker of English, but I have only rather recently started reading novels in English (not counting compulsory course literature for the university, but usually they were a drag). I used to always read the Swedish translations. Why? Don't know. Out of habit perhaps. Or because Swedish paperbacks are loads cheaper (at least until I discovered The Bookdepository - now it's a toss-up).

In a way I have the Twilight Saga to thank for a lot. It's really been an eye-opener. I had never considered the paranormal genre before, which in itself is rather odd given that I've always been equally fascinated by and terrified of the supernatural. On a tip from a friend whose taste in books and movies I really trust, I decided to give this Twilight-thing a shot, never having heard of it before. And it rocked my world. I don't know if I devoured it or it devoured me, but I got totally obsessed.

One good thing about me being so behind in the YA scene at this point in time was that all the installments of the Twilight Saga were already out so I could just plow through them. However, after finishing the Saga I experienced what I can only describe as withdrawal symptoms and went on-line trying to find something to quench my thirst for the paranormal (and to be honest, the romance).

A new world opened before my eyes. What an incredibly wide selection of books there is if you're willing to read in English. Why had I never thought about that before? From Twilight I went on to the House of Night series, which I stopped reading after a few books, and later on to all kinds of YA/paranormal lit. All in English, of course.

Now, my fiancée has to impose shopping bans on me because I can't help ordering loads and loads of English YA fiction on-line.