Upon finishing “GIlgamesh,” I’ve moved on to, “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas. (Is that the right number of “A”s? Or are there three? Maaas? Maaaas?)

I don’t know why I downloaded it. I don’t know why I’m reading it. Why does anybody do anything?

That isn’t me being saturnine — I’m just saying that I need to be more open in my criteria for selecting what I read. I feel like I turn my nose up at too many books.

In 2008 or 2009, back when I was living in Korea, some friends and I went to see the first “Twilight” movie on accident. We had no idea what it was about (other than there were vampires in it — “So it’s probably a scary movie, right?”), and my friends didn’t exactly “warm up” to the subject matter. Some of them were even afraid to show their faces in daylight after that experience.

I was right there with them, until I happened to pick up the book version of “Twilight” at the bus station one night. I bought it while I was waiting for a bus from Seoul to Cheong-ju, which wasn’t a bad ride if you had a book, and I was desperate. (It wasn’t easy to get English books in Korea back then — you had to read what was available, and “Twilight” was available.)

The book hooked me immediately. Again, I don’t really know why. And it’s easy to poke fun at that series. The mindlessness of it? The heavy-handedness? The jarringly bad dialogue? Something about them kept me coming back, though, time after time, book after book. I turned down offers to go do actual things in favor of staying home and reading “Twilight.” I loaned the book to people and said, “I know it’s controversial, but I’m on team Jacob!”

(I wasn’t, though. I just like to get a rise out of people. #stillteamedward)

Sure, I was probably just being ironic and the worst kind of hipster, but my point is that I got a kick out of those books and still do. And, if I hadn’t accidentally stumbled into what I thought was a horror movie, I would have never even heard of them.

I don’t mean to equate “Twilight” and “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” but I guess that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Anywho. Since “Twilight,” I’ve been a little less hesitant to read the mass-published powerhouses of Y.A. and Fantasy, even though they all have names like, “A BLANK of BLANK and BLANK,” and, I’m pretty sure, are just thinly-veiled excuses for librarians to read pornography.

So, I’ll give Sarah J. “Mucho” Maas a try. What harm can it do? (“Harm? Harm, Bella? All I can do is harm you. This is the skin of a monster! A twinkling monster!” *swoon*)