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I just read my first Stephen King novel in like 10 years, Doctor Sleep! It was really actually good. It was jus ta drat good novel. Do have some questions though Does one of his other books reveal who the True are? It seemed like there was a lot of tie ins with his other books, specifically it mentioned Jerusalems Lot
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Dec 28, 2013 09:30
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| # ? May 15, 2024 17:36 |
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I'm nearing the end of It now and you know what makes the sewer gang-bang ultra-gross? They're all completely covered in feces.
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Dec 29, 2013 02:55
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I'm surprised that the Losers are never referred to as ka-tet... or are they and I've skimmed over it in the past? I was a passenger on a long drive yesterday and had lots of time to read. I am now past The Apocalyptic Rockfight and all seven Losers are finally together. There are so many parts of this book that give me chills - I'm glad we're doing a re-read, it really reminds me why It is one of my favourite books. Someone in this thread said that King really captures the essence of childhood friendship, and that's really the best part of the novel for me. These seven kids, united by a single cause. Right now I'm 63% done according to my Kindle, and Mike is about to show them the photo album.
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Dec 29, 2013 03:55
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Also, Vince "Boogers" Taliendo is my favorite small character in the book. He doesn't do much but that name never fails to make me smile.
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Dec 29, 2013 04:35
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uptown posted:I'm surprised that the Losers are never referred to as ka-tet... or are they and I've skimmed over it in the past? Pretty sure he came up with that stuff after IT was published. I started Doctor Sleep today because of the Amazon sale and I'm enjoying it so far. Danny's life kind of crashing down on him is super depressing though.
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Dec 29, 2013 05:07
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muscles like this? posted:Danny's life kind of crashing down on him is super depressing though. I know you haven't finished it yet, so don't read this until you have, but the ending with him confessing about the kid and the coke to the AA group, and them all giving a collective shrug was really heartwarming to me. The fact that it was so built up through the whole book and then shown as a bad thing, but no worse than lots of other folks was something I really enjoyed.
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Dec 29, 2013 06:40
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Ninja Bob posted:I know you haven't finished it yet, so don't read this until you have, but the ending with him confessing about the kid and the coke to the AA group, and them all giving a collective shrug was really heartwarming to me. The fact that it was so built up through the whole book and then shown as a bad thing, but no worse than lots of other folks was something I really enjoyed. Sorry for the spoiler block. I should've used them earlier. Re: Doctor Sleep's ending (and some Under the Dome spoilers) I've never been to an AA meeting, which means I have nothing but second-hand info on this (from television and other books), but I think that scene at the end pretty much sums up the theme of the novel: evil, either in act (canny), addiction (alcoholism) or persona (Rosie) isn't ever as bad as you think it is. While that isn't exactly a new approach for King (Flagg, for instance, tends to keep on shooting himself in the foot), that theme is usually secondary to others, and it's never been as front and center as it is in Doctor Sleep. I'd say maybe King's getting soft in his old age, but then again he did kill off a couple thousand people in Under the Dome. Asbury fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Dec 29, 2013 |
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Dec 29, 2013 06:48
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I think I saw one vague mention of this here, but the messcook for Company E who was at The Black Spot the night it burned down was Dick Hallorann, who was also the chef at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. I didn't even notice that the first time around. Yes, I'm reading this really slowly, already finished two other books meanwhile because this seems to be harder to read this time around, I have to take long breaks, probably because I'm a mom now.
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Dec 29, 2013 07:45
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If anyone is interested in NOS4A2, the kindle version is on sale for $1.99 on Amazon today.
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Dec 29, 2013 19:15
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April posted:If anyone is interested in NOS4A2, the kindle version is on sale for $1.99 on Amazon today. I came to post this as well. Two of his other books are on sale, all $1.99 for kindle. NOS4A2 for $1.99 Heart Shaped Box for $1.99 20th Century Ghosts for $1.99 Enjoy.
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Dec 29, 2013 20:10
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Is NOS4A2 better than Heart Shaped Box and/or Horns? I've read both and wasn't too stoked on either, but I'm willing to try if it's better.
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Dec 29, 2013 21:38
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Ninja Bob posted:I know you haven't finished it yet, so don't read this until you have, but the ending with him confessing about the kid and the coke to the AA group, and them all giving a collective shrug was really heartwarming to me. The fact that it was so built up through the whole book and then shown as a bad thing, but no worse than lots of other folks was something I really enjoyed. The funny thing is that is what happens at AA meetings all the time. Everyone there has done hosed up horrible things, and your bottom is your bottom. You always think that you are the worse, but everyone is equal in their own way.
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Dec 29, 2013 22:08
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So, just finished IT. The ending is such a downer. It is so completely bitter sweet. You spend hundreds and hundreds of pages learning about these kids, the bond they share, the love they have for each other, the sacrifices they've made, and when all is said and done, they really don't have a drat thing to show for any of it. I suppose in that same way, it is how people mourn their childhoods. The times you had as a kid, the freedom you have as a kid, it all goes away and you can't ever get it back.
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Dec 29, 2013 23:28
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Roydrowsy posted:So, just finished IT. Sort of but not really. Ben and Beverly ride off to the sunset. Ben forgets the horror of his childhood. Bill gets his wife back due to his childhood.
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Dec 29, 2013 23:47
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Would you guys plese spoiler posts about IT? I know it's an old book, but a lot of us are reading it right now and even though I've read it before, I for one have forgotten a a lot of it.
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Dec 30, 2013 00:04
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uptown posted:Is NOS4A2 better than Heart Shaped Box and/or Horns? I've read both and wasn't too stoked on either, but I'm willing to try if it's better. It's different. Heart-Shaped Box was pretty dark & grim, and about dysfunction in families and relationships. Horns was more light-hearted, and had a pretty deep romantic theme. Both of them dealt heavily with boyfriend/girlfriend relationships. NOS4A2 deals more with parent-child relationships, and how they look both from the inside and the outside. I liked it a lot, but I also liked the other two. I guess the only way to see if you'll like it is to try it? I really can't say if it's better or worse, just... different.
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Dec 30, 2013 00:41
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Roydrowsy posted:So, just finished IT. They can't go back to the way they were before, of course, but the ones who survive do seem to heal and grow as people. Each of them was shown as being haunted by particular aspects of their past and there's some implication that now that they've conquered the trauma of their childhood they'll be able to move on in their adult lives. They also, presumably, might now be able to have children, something they were all incapable of doing before. Its definitely bitter-sweet, but I think it speaks to the way that for many people growing up and leaving childhood behind is both a triumph and a tragedy. Actually, that raises another question. For those of you who have read 11/22/63, I've heard that Richie and Beverly both show up. Assuming this isn't a major spoiler, does it mention whether either of them have kids?
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Dec 30, 2013 00:57
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Helsing posted:Actually, that raises another question. For those of you who have read 11/22/63, I've heard that Richie and Beverly both show up. Assuming this isn't a major spoiler, does it mention whether either of them have kids? They show up when they are kids, a few years after the 1958 events in It.
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Dec 30, 2013 01:01
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uptown posted:Is NOS4A2 better than Heart Shaped Box and/or Horns? I've read both and wasn't too stoked on either, but I'm willing to try if it's better. I didn't like Heart Shaped Box at all and thought Horns was better but still not great, but then I liked NOS4A2 a lot.
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Dec 30, 2013 01:28
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Helsing posted:They can't go back to the way they were before, of course, but the ones who survive do seem to heal and grow as people. Each of them was shown as being haunted by particular aspects of their past and there's some implication that now that they've conquered the trauma of their childhood they'll be able to move on in their adult lives. They also, presumably, might now be able to have children, something they were all incapable of doing before. Its definitely bitter-sweet, but I think it speaks to the way that for many people growing up and leaving childhood behind is both a triumph and a tragedy. Eddie's ending is incredibly sad, though. Forever forgotten by the friends he gave his life to save, and forever a missing person.
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Dec 30, 2013 02:23
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The part that breaks my heart a little bit in It is at the end, after TSHTF as adults, the monster has finally been defeated for once and all, and the survivors are staggering back in to the hotel. Eddie died in the sewers and they had to leave his body and Mike is still in the hospital recovering from Henry's attack, and Beverly sees something that King says she does not mention, but never forgets - she sees six of them, not just the remaining four, reflected in the glass of the doors, because Eddie and Stan are there in spirit.
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Dec 30, 2013 02:29
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I'm reading NOS4A2 right now and have come across a couple mentions of a character named Willa Lords. I'm positive that's a shout-out to a King book but I can't remember which one? Am I just going nuts?
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Dec 30, 2013 12:56
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The Time Dissolver posted:I'm reading NOS4A2 right now and have come across a couple mentions of a character named Willa Lords. I'm positive that's a shout-out to a King book but I can't remember which one? Am I just going nuts? There's a short story in the anthology Just After Sunset titled "Willa," but I don't know if they give her last name...
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Dec 30, 2013 16:00
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Dec 30, 2013 16:51
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I just noticed another tie-in between IT and another book: When Ben starts his walking tour he is in front of "a Trustworthy Hardware Store that had been a pawnshop in 1958 (Frati Brothers, Ben recalls, the double windows always full of pistols and rifles and straight-razors and guitars hung up by their necks like exotic animals)" and in 11/22/63, Frati Brothers is where Jake makes his wager with Charles "Chaz" Frati when he goes back to 1958 in Derry. And of course, some of the downtown bars from 11/22/63 are the same in IT too, not only in 1958 but in 1929-30 when The Black Spot burned down.
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Dec 30, 2013 23:36
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There is also a really short 1 sentence reference to the short story, "The End of the Whole Mess" though I don't remember exactly where it was.
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Dec 31, 2013 01:53
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I think they mention the town where murders are really low to compare it to the high murder rate in Derry.
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Dec 31, 2013 15:57
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I just finished my first ever King book, 11/22/63. (Yes, I have already been shamed by friends who cannot believe that I have never read any of his books before. I have never had the urge to until now. I really enjoyed the book and I was surprised that the love story is the main focus of the book and the Kennedy assassination is simply the background. By the end, all I wanted was for Sadie and Jake/George to find some way to be together. The ending dance was very heartwarming if not heartbreaking. I have a question though; do a lot of King books intertwine like Frati's pawnshop, Rich and Beverly, and Derry?
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Dec 31, 2013 19:08
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Most of them do. Sometimes it's just a minor throwaway line (eg a reference to a town or a character in another book), but a number of his stories have major crossovers with characters, philosophies, and worlds. Some he pulls off better than others.
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Dec 31, 2013 19:23
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I just finished my re-read of It. I'd read it before and basically remembered the story but not much else. What a pleasant surprise to dive in and find that I either didn't remember it or read it when I was too young to understand this book. King being my favorite author I'm gonna have to take another look at his work and see what else I may have been overlooking like this. The transitions between past and present were very well done and it gave me the same feeling the movie "Stand by me" does. We should all do another re- read of a King classic soon. It's kept the thread active and kept people on the books.
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Dec 31, 2013 20:46
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King has a couple of blind spots that keep popping up and driving me nuts; it's like he doesn't think certain things out. Here's one of them: "She shivered, hugging her arms across her breats in an X, cupping her elbows in her palms." That's impossible. Maybe she could ccross her arms under her breasts and cup her elbows, but they wouldn't make an "X" - maybe a flattened sideways X, but again she still wouldn't really be hugging herself either. Try it. Now if she cupped her shoulders or held her biceps it would make an X across her breasts AND she'd be hugging herself. But then if wouldn't be Stephen King, I guess.
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Dec 31, 2013 22:10
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Pheeets posted:King has a couple of blind spots that keep popping up and driving me nuts; it's like he doesn't think certain things out. Here's one of them: "She shivered, hugging her arms across her breats in an X, cupping her elbows in her palms." That's impossible. Maybe she could ccross her arms under her breasts and cup her elbows, but they wouldn't make an "X" - maybe a flattened sideways X, but again she still wouldn't really be hugging herself either. Try it. Now if she cupped her shoulders or held her biceps it would make an X across her breasts AND she'd be hugging herself. But then if wouldn't be Stephen King, I guess. He just wanted to make you think. It could almost sort of kinda work if your breasts were very large in some strange dimensions, particularly up or down? Some kind of Lovecraftian breasts. Edit: and that's when I decided to become a video game designer.
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Dec 31, 2013 22:24
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If I shrug my shoulders, cup my elbows, and look straight down, I see exactly what he's describing. It's only weird because he seems to look for opportunities to mention breasts.
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Jan 1, 2014 00:07
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3Romeo posted:Most of them do. Sometimes it's just a minor throwaway line (eg a reference to a town or a character in another book), but a number of his stories have major crossovers with characters, philosophies, and worlds. Some he pulls off better than others. Quite a few short stories and a couple of novels in the 80s were set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. Although he kind of ends that era with the book Needful Things.
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Jan 1, 2014 04:10
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Eh, it just does not compute for me. If I was to hug myself I'd cross my arms and hold my shoulders, not my elbows. Just a minor quibble in any case.
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Jan 1, 2014 04:43
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Re-reading the Talisman. loving Oatley is way more horrifying as an adult stuck in lovely menial wage jobs than it ever was as a child  At work, two other people are reading King books; The Shining, and The Dark Half. Just need to get a couple others to start reading The Dead Zone, The Stand, and The Green Mile, and I think we'll have the Stephen King "The" Book Club on target!
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Jan 1, 2014 05:50
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I just picked up Bag of Bones at Goodwill for two bucks. I can't remember if i liked it or not last time i read it back in the last century.
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Jan 1, 2014 06:33
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3Romeo posted:Most of them do. Sometimes it's just a minor throwaway line (eg a reference to a town or a character in another book), but a number of his stories have major crossovers with characters, philosophies, and worlds. Some he pulls off better than others. I just passed a bit in It with reference to "The End of the Whole Mess" that I never caught before. Pheeets posted:King has a couple of blind spots that keep popping up and driving me nuts; Take a shot everytime you see reference to Blue Chambray Workshirts in King's books; by the end you'll be as drunk as he was when he wrote Cujo.
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Jan 1, 2014 07:47
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:I just passed a bit in It with reference to "The End of the Whole Mess" that I never caught before. Add arc sodium lights and you're done for.
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Jan 1, 2014 07:53
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| # ? May 15, 2024 17:36 |
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syscall girl posted:Add arc sodium lights and you're done for. Or pocket handkerchiefs. Everybody, young and old, carries a clean white one.
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Jan 1, 2014 08:04
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