Vegetarian Vampires? Where's the Fun in THAT?!

I'm typically suspicious of vampire novels. I like the malevolent evil creatures too much (see explanation here) to see them portrayed poorly in campy film or literature, so have a natural predisposition to "keeping to the classics" of traditional lore or literature rather than trendy re-creations when looking for entertainment.

Still, having said such, I'm usually game to give something a shot if it's highly recommended or looks interesting, and so when one of Jeanna Tripp's friends recommended the new Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, did some checking to see what it was about. I walked away with the initial first blush reactions:
* Hmmm... it's written for teen aged girls. I'm a 34 year old guy... do the math.
* It features "vegetarian" vampires. Vegetarian? Where's the fun in THAT?
* It's been labeled, as one of my friends put it, "Chick flick meets vampire drama".
Still, hoping for the best, i dove into the first book (Twilight) with considerable curiosity but not very high expectations. My analysis upon finishing was "Hmmm... not a very unique plot line..." (by her own admission, Stephanie Meyer gives regular homage to classic works of literature, and each of her books follows a traditional plot from, say, Romeo and Juliet, Sense and Sensibility, Midsummer Night's Dream, etc.)... but something in it perked my curiosity enough to read the second one. So i dove into New Moon (the second of the series), feeling a little odd about how eager i was to see what happened, and then by the third book (Eclipse) i was beginning to feel a little odd about the unfamiliar pangs of what i can only describe as what must be addiction gnawing at my subconscious. "What's wrong with me?" I would wonder amidst waves of anxious panic as the events unfolded, or tears welled in my eyes at particularly salient points in the plot. By Breaking Dawn, i was a complete mess. By that point, i needed certain things to happen. I needed for certain people to "win", certain people to "lose", certain things to "work out", and certain things to be "taken care of". Greedily downloading it for my Kindle the very minute after midnight that it became available, i read it without interruption on my way back from India. It was such an emotionally involved experience that i collapsed in exhaustion after finishing, and then promptly slept for the better part of 2 days (of course, 15 days in India and 48 hours of straight travel didn't have ANYTHING to do with it, i'm sure). When i finally managed to achieve my normal level of composure again, i mused to Sami that i still was surprised at how the series grabbed me... and... when all is said and done... that apparently, i have the emotional maturity of a 19 year old girl.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko

So I was in our weekly Missions Dept/Communications Dept meeting on Wednesday morning, and Kem Meyer piped up toward the end and grabbed a copy of Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind from the top of her book shelf. She asked if i was familiar with Pink, and while i hadn't read New Mind, i had heard his name before from discussions with Ron Martoia. Then she told me that Pink had won an award that landed him a stint in Japan studying Manga (it's basically "print Anime"... but don't call it a comic book), and had produced his next work as a treatise on business survival and market leadership, but using the Japanese traditional graphic representation of it for effect. The end result is a fun-looking new book called The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. There's a hilarious trailer for the book on Amazon.com, but the general jist is that the protagonist (Johnny Bunko) finds himself in a dead-end job with the Boggs Company and little prospects of advancement or satisfaction. During his time there, he discovers (through his interaction with an attractive "career counselor" named Diana), the 6 critical lessons necessary to understand to survive:

* There is no plan.
* Think strengths, not weaknesses.
* It's not about you.
* Persistence trumps talent.
* Make excellent mistakes.
* Leave an imprint.

I'll be downloading the book for my Kindle tomorrow, and will comment here on my thoughts after finishing it (hopefully) this weekend.

The concept, interestingly, reminds me of an actual Japanese manga/anime called Salaryman Kintaro, which has enjoyed considerably popularity in Japan, and is available for viewing (with English subtitles) here in the States via Netflix (if you're a subscriber). In the series, Kintaro is a former gang leader who decides to join a local corporation after losing his wife. In the corporation, he uses his "street smarts" to challenge long-held corporate protocols, and manages to best most of the corporate moguls in the process by blending his savage "gangsta" tactics with simple nobility and a refusal to do the dishonorable. The series provides interesting social commentary into the Japanese psyche and the tensions often held between the underlying morality of the Bushido-based culture and the bottom-line-driven bloodthirstiness of most corporations.