New Moon Tickets already selling! New Moon trailers are out! New Moon this! New Moon that!

So I've been pretty indifferent to this whole "hate 'em with a passion or love them like a fan girl" thing going on with the Twilight series. I haven't read the books and I almost slept through the first movie. However, there are those who are even MORE clueless about Twilight than I am but even those people could tell you they've noticed the hype. Those from my area can tell you well about the trampling of the people at the mall when Kristen Stewart (Bella) had a signing at Hot Topic. There weren't just fan girls but fan parents and fan boys. A lot lost their sense of dignity as they lost themselves in the deafening high pitched screaming as Ms Stewart showed her face.
So what I was getting at is that I don't HAVE to be well versed in Twilight to know that there's an incredible hype. However, I'm indifferent. I don't like the series but I don't hate it. I'm not one of the passionate haters or the "I'LL DIE FOR YOU EDWARD, TAKE MY BLOOD!" fan. You see, I don't believe in glittering vampires or werewolves falling in love with a human who has blood claim (those who know Atwater-Rhodes' books should know what blood claim is). I also don't believe in Native American werewolves. I believe the European werewolves. Though there were things much like werewolves in some Native American cultures, these animal-men were usually not just wolf in form. Some were wolves, some were eagles, some were horses, etc etc. But now I sidetrack...
Now, all I'm really trying to get at with this blog is that though I'm aware of the hype and tried to be indifferent, it's getting annoying trying to get the latest media news only to be bombarded with this Twilight: New Moon hype.  Even blogs are being over run with "I love Edward" blogs and "Twilight is gay" blogs. With this being said, let's not even start with youtube.
What I don't understand is how this all became such a big hype. Other than the vampires 'sucking blood' to survive, these vampires from the Twilight series don't follow much of the conventional traditions of vampires. I've known authors to create their own vampires before but I feel that Twilight vampires are really out there. I'm a personal fan of Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I have books from "In the Forests of the Night" to "Snakecharm". They were good books and were pretty short. I love epically long books, don't get me wrong (I just finished reading Mists of Avalon), but sometimes short and to the point is really nice once in a while.
Even with Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, her vampires were traditional with some creativity of vampirism. There were no glittering, good vampries. These books had a lot of charm and provided good entertainment. I don't understand how these books didn't become such a hype. It has a good following and I feel that Twilight is only worthy of a good following. The hype feel undeserved.
I think that when something turns into a frenzied franchise like Twilight, it's just like a whirlpool. One gets sucked in and then another and another. Soon enough, you have a ton of people who are absorbed in the hype. What for, who knows?
So I have said my two cents worth. Hate? No, I don't think so. But I most certainly don't have the passion of love for the books and movies as much as a lot of others do. However, I feel that those who read this should give the books by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes a try. Specifically, go after "In the Forests of the Night". It's a good start to her books.