An Inspirational Story Involving Vampires

Today I received a surprise call from...my hair stylist! She's a lovely young woman about twenty or twenty-one years of age who once confided, while I was under the scissors, that she just wasn't into reading. She'd never cared for it and didn't do it now that she was out of school.

Well, that was like throwing down a gauntlet, as far as I was concerned.

So for Christmas I gave her a copy of Twilight the really hot YA vampire book by Stephenie Meyer. (And, no, I don't have a long line of stylists fighting over who gets to do my cut and colors. Why is that, do you suppose?) I told her, "This book is hot." If you weren't into reading, wouldn't that be about the only thing that would entice you to give it a shot?

As I said, she is a lovely young woman and obviously well brought up because she expressed great appreciation for the gift. But over the months it was clear that she hadn't run right out to read it.

But today she called me, all excited because she had finished Twilight, and she had loved it. She had already gone out to buy the sequel, New Moon. I told her, "You know, the author has another book coming out later this year."

"August 7th! It's coming out August 7th!" she replied.

She told her mother about the book, and her mother said, "You read an entire book?"

I swear, K. told me, "You gave me the gift of reading."

Now, I know that may be going too far because she'd only read the one book. But, still, wow. I feel like some kind of missionary. An evangelist.

I know another young woman who is going to get Twilight for Christmas this year.