As busy as life gets, reading a book is a luxury most of us have little time to pursue. However, lately, I have wanted to bury myself in a good book, so on a recent trip to Pittsburgh, I took the one most writers consider maybe the best novel ever written -- Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn." Although I have read it before, I wanted to reread it slowly and relish each word.

Because I enjoy such classics, I'm not really much for romance novels, so it was with no small amount of trepidation that I found myself a couple of weeks later at the other end of the scale in publishing, when I attended a book party on Aug. 2 for "Breaking Dawn," the latest release by author Stephenie Meyer. "Breaking Dawn" is the fourth in a succession of books called the "Twilight Series."

I first learned of the Twilight books a few months ago when my 15-year-old brought home the first volume of the series, titled "Twilight." The novel concerns a girl who moves to a small town in the state of Washington that is populated by not only regular people, but also, well, the undead and some shape shifters -- you know, vampires and werewolves.

I am not kidding.

The girl falls in love with the best-looking (of course) of the male vampires who, though a bloodsucker, does not attack humans. He gets his blood from other means, so he's OK. The werewolves are OK, too. They just rise up against the bad vampires -- the ones who do attack humans.

I am still not kidding.

These four books take up a good part of the New York Times Best Seller list. The little girls love it, and so do some big girls.

We went to the book party at 9:30 p.m. I have to say, that was too early for me. I went with the 15-year-old and her same-age friend, and my 33-year-old daughter. Excuse me; she was still 32, as the party was a few days before her birthday. She wouldn't want me to leave that part out.

Although I wore a rather nice blue top and blue jeans, I was sadly over-dressed. Many clad themselves as the characters in the book, which consisted of white face paint and a black cape. Hey, I had one of those in the closet -- I save everything for Halloween. Some had on prom dresses because prom is mentioned in the book and some wore their Goth outfits because that is what they always wear. Here, they did not look out of place -- I did.

What I disliked the most was that there was no free food. Of course, this was a book that stars vampires and even I know that vampires do not eat regular meals. Anyway, we were kind of a motley crew, and the evening got a little long. We all kind of wished we hadn't arrived there until 11 p.m.

I had not read "Twilight," but my two daughters had and all they did was rhapsodize about the main character named Edward. He was what we would have called the "cute one" back in the '60s. They also insisted I would have to read it. The 15-year-old said she was going to buy me my own personal copy of "Twilight" for my birthday, which meant in the real world that she would pick it up and hand it to me so that I could pay for it. I also bought a book that talked seriously about not wasting the time you had on the earth. I am sure there was a lesson in there for me.

The older daughter, who had driven to the bookstore, informed me at 12:30 a.m. that I would have to drive home because she was going to read. So I drove east on Route 60 with all the lights on while three others read the latest installment.

The next day, I read the book about not wasting one's life and time management. One of the girls was nearly finished with "Breaking Dawn" because she had stayed up all night reading. One was still reading the next couple of days, and the 33-year-old read slowly to make it last longer. She used to do the same thing with candy.

The next day, on Monday, I started "Twilight." At first, I had to laugh. I even thought about going back to see where Huck Finn was on his river escapades, but I kept reading after both daughters assured me I would love it. I admit, it took a little while, and then I was caught up.

The plot concerns a girl named Bella who goes to Forks, Wash., to live with her dad. At school, she sees this family of "teenagers" sitting at the lunch table. They are trying to pass, which means they pretend to eat, because they don't want to draw attention to themselves. So far, being cold, white and badly anemic hasn't tipped anyone off.

Being vampires, they are unbelievably beautiful, especially Edward. He is drawn to Bella, although she is not part of the undead community. He spends most of four books trying to keep from doing what comes naturally to a vampire, which is biting her. He wants Bella to stay human. Edward is a mixture of James Dean for looks and angst (yes, a vampire can have angst), Brad Pitt and any gorgeous male movie star you can imagine.

He and his vampire brothers and sisters, like Dick Clark, are perpetual teenagers. They stay about 17, which causes Bella to worry that when she gets 30, she will be too old for him. Also in the mix is a boy who becomes a friend of hers who, at age 16, becomes a werewolf.

I know, I know -- you probably have a kid who, when they went through puberty, you thought was maybe a werewolf. If they no longer shape shift at 20, you are probably safe.

Anyway, it dawned on me how engrossed I was getting when I looked up that first day. We three were sitting on various parts of the sectional sofa, totally enraptured. The house was dead (maybe undead) quiet, the TV was not on, and no one had even eaten except a bag of potato chips we passed around. You have to hand it to Stephenie Meyer for keeping us totally quiet for hours at a time.

And it is no wonder. The books and the people are addictive. Every time Edward locks eyes with the main character, he is locking eyes with the reader. When he left for several months because, well, it just wasn't going to work, we miss him as badly as Bella does.

The books are fun, and they are written for youthful readers, so bad language and racy situations are never mentioned. He touches her cheek or brushes his lips lightly against her lips. That is it until they are married.

I am embarrassed to say that I read all four books in one week. Anyway, I now have about eight loads of clothes piled up in the laundry and maybe tonight I'll cook a real meal, but hey, I think even Huck would understand.

Bonny Rushbrook is a freelance writer and mother of four. She writes about the humorous side of parenthood each month in Tri-State Family. She can be reached at scripto@wv-cis.net.