FRIEND

1 a: one attached to another by affection or esteem b: acquaintance
3: one that favors or promotes something

A friend of mine (we'll call her Ms. C) sent me the link to Midnight Sun 10 days ago. (For those of you who don't share my obsession, Midnight Sun is a partial draft that Stephenie Meyer published online of book 5 of the Twilight Saga.) I didn't even open the link at the time because I was reading another book and knew that if I started reading another Twilight book, all other reading would cease. Now, Ms. C is the same friend who bought every book in the Twilight series and would loan me each new book, passing them surreptitiously to me at church or the coffee shop. My husband called her my dealer.

I find it highly amusing that one of the definitions of friend is "one that favors or promotes something." That's certainly what Ms. C has done for me with the Twilight series. It was my fault to begin with. I'd heard about the books and suggested that we read one for a book club that we're in together. I tend to wait until very close to time for the book club to meet before reading the book, so that it's fresh in my memory. Ms. C has no such compunction and read the book shortly after we selected it. She was hooked and wasted no time in promoting her favored book with me.

She loaned me the book in mid-December and it sat on my shelf for a few weeks. As we were leaving to go to Disney World, I grabbed it off the shelf because I can't go on a vacation without a book, not even a vacation to Disney World. I finished the book on our drive back from Disney World, in spite of the fact that I get car sick with terrible headaches when I read in the car. It was worth it.

Without boring you with the details, I'll just say that thanks to Ms. C's Twilight Library, I read all four books in the series in a 10 day span - and that was taking a break in the middle to read a book by a different author! So I knew when Ms. C told me about Midnight Sun that I had to wait until I had time to read it. I'm not sure I had time today, but I spent a good chunk of my day reading the 264 page PDF online. I didn't exercise, my children ate a quick and easy dinner and I even let them finish watching a movie on a school night so that I could read.

Now, would a true friend encourage this complete irresponsibility in me?! It's a good thing I'm attached to her affectionately and hold her in high esteem in spite of the fact that she encourages the bibliovore in me. I think I'll repay her by introducing her to the Outlander series... or something terribly addictive.