The Next Best Book Club discussion
Personal Reading Goals
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Becky's 2010 Reading Progress
Interesting...I always count re-reads because I still read a book the whole through and usually get much more out of it. But to each her own :)
Well, yeah, but part of my goal for last year was to clear out some of the owned and unread books I have, so I didn't re-read anything. This year I'm just going to read whatever I want, with no goal in mind, no time-frame, no pressure. I see myself reading a LOT of Stephen King and Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.
I can't wait! Is it 2010 yet? OH YEAH! IT IS! :D
i need to finish the rest of Lord Of The Rings. And of course, Desperegulators! :)
That's a fair point. A lot of my re-reads happen because of school, so I wind up discussing them in different contexts or more carefully re-reading something which I might have rushed through in the first place. I know I have a lot of re-reading to do this semester, but there's also a couple of books I own which I want to read again.
I just added the last book to my "read in 2009" shelf! Woohoo. I hope 2010 doesn't mind that I borrowed its first hour and a half to finish it :P lol.Happy reading in 2010, Buh :) I'm glad you aren't gonna make goals about reading so many books before you buy...you aren't too good at those you know :D
Did you make it into quadruple digits for 2009? >_>And I blame YOU for my lapse and lack of willpower. :P
Becky wrote: "Did you make it into quadruple digits for 2009? >_>And I blame YOU for my lapse and lack of willpower. :P"
in that case...let me make a list of all the books I think you should buy ;)
Oooo that's right your book ban is lifted. Exciting!
Well, it's sort of been lifted since April... LOL *Failure*
Hahaha, that's our cheeky 'quiet' Becky
would I like The Gun Seller? You've been raving about it like a drug addict...and you've made me veeery curious.
Allison wrote: "would I like The Gun Seller? You've been raving about it like a drug addict...and you've made me veeery curious."I think you would if you like British humor. You should read it and see.
I absolutely loved it.
Books Read: 1Total Pages Read: 339
Average # Pages per book: 339
1. 01/02/10 -
The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie -- 336 pgs (5 Star) Review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Books Read: 2Total Pages Read: 636
Average # Pages per book: 318
2. 01/02/10 -
On Writing by Stephen King -- 297 pgs (5 Star) {Non-Fiction}http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Becky wrote: "Well, it's sort of been lifted since April... LOL *Failure*"
These things happen. Personally I don't think I could ever survive a book ban. I'm getting through all of the books I own, slowly but surely!
I also like how you've added your ratings and links to your reviews in this thread. It's a nice added touch.
Liz wrote: "These things happen. Personally I don't think I could ever survive a book ban. I'm getting through all of the books I ..."Thank you... I thought it would be nice to look at. I'm wondering now If I should keep like a Master list or something, or if I should just keep doing individual posts. I dunno!
Books Read: 3Total Pages Read: 924
Average # Pages per book: 308
3. 01/08/10 -
To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust -- 288 pgs (2 stars)http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Books Read: 4 Total Pages Read: 1100
Average # Pages per book: 275
4.
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Bev Vincent -- 176 pgs (5 stars) {Non-fiction}http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...]
I can't wait to read that one. AND look at it. Pull it apart. Scour the pages. You know, bone up on my stalking info;)
maybe i should read it too, since i suck at stalking! :)
I'm not quiet or sneaky enough to be an effective stalker. Research I can do, though!
Books Read: 5 Total Pages Read: 1490
Average # Pages per book: 298
5.
Losing Julia by Jonathan Hull -- 390 pgs (5 star) http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Books Read: 6Total Pages Read: 2182
Average # Pages per book: 364
6.
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough -- 692 pgs (4 star)http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Books Read: 7Total Pages Read: 2865
Average # Pages per book: 409
7.
The Shining by Stephen King -- 683 pgs (5 star)This has always been one of my favorite books. I have read it more times than I can count since the first time, when I was about 9 or 10 I think. I've gone through at least three copies, and I am sure that I will go through at least that many, if not more, in the future. The Shining is one of those books that I can re-read over and over. I'm sure that it must bug Stephen King that his older books are the ones that people always feel this way about... but the money I spend in new copies will, I hope, offset that annoyance. ;)
I must say that my reading this time was a bit different from all of the other times that I've read this book. Before, I would read it, and just immerse myself in the story and live it vicariously through the characters. But this time, knowing that I would be reviewing it, it's like I saw the story with new eyes. I saw some things that struck me as false, or strange, but those things pale in comparison to the things that I love about this book. Number one, I just love the FEEL of this book... the dread, the slow collapse of normality and the build-up of sinister homicidal mania. It might make people look at me funny, but when I crack the cover and read the first line, "Officious little prick." I just fall in love with Jack Torrance all over again.
You might say to yourself, "What? LOVE? That guy is a psychopath!" but I disagree. I don't mean that I'm really IN LOVE with him, but I love Jack's character, and I always have. It's not the roque mallet-wielding monster stalking his wife and child through an abandoned hotel that I love, it's JACK that I love. But I do love the Overlook too. It's just a different kind, more of an awe.
Jack has always been one of my favorite characters. He is seriously, seriously flawed, and his flaws are real, and make him a person more than a character to me. He is the product of an abusive home life, with an alcoholic father and a mentally and emotionally checked-out mother. This story is almost as much about the cycle of abuse and dependence as it is about the Overlook. As a child, Jack adored his father, but was wary of his temper, and before that adoration could be ruined forever, his father died. In a way, this adoration cemented itself in his sub-conscious, so that even as he grew and realized how terrible his father really had been, the adoration he had felt for him as a child remained, and gave the Overlook a crack to begin working on.
Jack had a lot of "cracks" for the Overlook to choose from. He followed in his father's alcoholic footsteps, had anger and impulse control issues, felt a misguided sense of entitlement and that life and luck and the world was against him. He failed to realize that his choices define who he is, and instead let things happen to him. The Overlook took all of these small intimate feelings and shoved them right under the microscope and legitimized them, in order to mold Jack to the Hotel's will.
When I've discussed this book with people before, they seem to think that Jack would have gone down the same self-destructive path with or without the hotel's influence. But again, I disagree. Jack is a generally good person, who absolutely needed help, but was the type who couldn't bring himself to seek it. That being said, he had been sober for over a year, and after the incident with George Hatfield, I think that he had hit rock bottom. He knew that from there, he could either give up, or he could improve. His going to the Overlook was his way of trying to give life a second chance, to do things right for himself and his family. Unfortunately, the Overlook had other plans and used his insecurities to manipulate and control him.
It fascinated me, reading this again, just HOW quickly the Overlook asserted it's influence on Jack. He'd barely even stepped in the door with his wife and child, hadn't even done the grand tour, yet he's described as staring out the window looking "rapt and dreamy". And even before that, using King's method of what I like to call "underthoughts", he inserted a thought into Jack's mind (Come out, you little shit!) when Jack was explaining the game of roque to Danny.
Danny himself is fascinating, but not nearly as fascinating to me as Jack is. Danny has a sort of second sight that allows him to see and know things, things that are going to happen, things that have happened, what people are thinking and feeling, etc. Other than this ability, he is a bright and intuitive 5 year old. He understands that this is Jack's way of picking himself up by his bootstraps and trying to dust himself off. He fears the Overlook, because of his ability, both because it allows him to understand the Overlook and because it why it wants him in the first place.
Part of Danny's ability is a friend who appears as a vision, Tony, who shows him things that Danny needs to know. Tony, who is described as being around 11 years old, is Danny's mind's way of interpreting the things that his mind shows him - and older kid mentoring the younger, perhaps. Danny doesn't yet know how to read, so he isn't able to understand a lot of the images he sees, and Tony acts as a screen to filter and clarify the images for Danny's young mind to understand. Tony is a part of Danny, literally, as he is an older version of Danny himself. I am not sure whether Tony existing in Danny's mind means that on some level, Danny is always meant to survive, but it seems a little paradoxical to me. Can Danny see a future with him in it if he dies between now and then? Or is Tony simply conjured by his mind?
Dick Hallorann, the Overlook's cook, explains Danny's ability to him, as he has a bit of it himself. He is the one Danny mentally calls when things get bad. I loved Dick's character, although sometimes I think that the run of his thoughts (and they way they sound, specifically)doesn't strictly coincide with the way I see him. That's ok though.
Dick reminds me quite a lot of Speedy Parker from another King story (The Talisman), and I wonder if The Shining isn't more related to King's other books than not. I've always seen it as a standalone, kind of off from King's Universe books that have clear links to each other, but on this reading I saw some things that I think do link to other books.
- The Overlook itself is like Rose Red (which came much later, so Rose Red is probably more like the Overlook than vice versa.)
- Several of the Overlook's permanent inhabitants are described as "silvery". Silver eyes, silver costume, etc. This reminds me of IT.
- Speedy Parker, whom I mentioned before, is a Gunslinger, and Dick is a little bit of a gunslinger too, in a way.
- Danny's "Shining" is quite a lot like "the touch" from King's Dark Tower series.
I could really go on and on about this book. There is so much to love, and so much to see in it, that even reading it over and over, I find new things in it. Speaking of which, I should mention the two main things that stuck out.
The first is Danny's inability to read. He's 5 going on 6, and should technically have been in kindergarten already. But even if school started with first grade, Danny, whose parents are both avid readers and college educated adults, one of whom IS an educator, should have at least started learning how to read before hitting almost-six. That just seemed strange to me. I know that it is probably because his not knowing how to read in order to recognize the danger around him is a big point, but King could have easily made him a 4 going on 5 year old, and then it would have seemed ok to me.
The other thing is that when Jack (or the Overlook using Jack) finally finds Danny at the end, and Dick tells Wendy they should go help him, Wendy, Danny's MOTHER, say's "It's too late. He can only help himself." Granted, logically, she may be right, but I can't see how a MOTHER who prior to this swore to fight for her son's life before her own, would not go anyway and do whatever it took, even if it was too late.
Aside from those two things, I love every aspect of this story. I plan on reading it many, many more times in the future. :)
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great review Becky! I admit I've only read this book once but I agree that I don't think Jack would have fallen down that slope again without the Overlook's influence. Did you notice that The Shining is dedicated to King's son, Joe? :)
Thanks! Yes, I did notice the dedication. I love that. :)
When we read it with the King group I noticed the dedication. I don't think it meant much to me before that.
Books Read: 8Total Pages Read: 3744
Average # Pages per book: 468
8.
Dreamcatcher by Stephen King -- 879 pgs (4 star)Whew... There's a lot that I want to say about this book, and I'm not really sure where to start. I first read this book back in... oh, 2002 or 2003, maybe, and I can absolutely say that I did NOT get much out of it. Sure, it's still a thrill ride, still entertaining, but it was definitely not his best, in my, somewhat oblivious opinion. But see... I was something of a King Re-reader back then. I had my favorites - 'The Stand', 'The Shining', 'The Talisman', 'Needful Things' - to name a few, and I read, and re-read, and re-read those favorites, so, I wasn't as well versed on my King Universe back then as I am now.
Now, having read many more of King's "inter-related" books, I see the threads that bind them all together. Reading this again now was like... well, kind of like meeting a cool person at a bar, having a really interesting conversation with them, and then 7 years later finding out they are a long lost relative. That feeling of recognition is the same, although probably toned down a little since this is a book and NOT a long lost relative. Many, many times though, my eyes popped open and I'm like "OH! That's a reference to...!" or "WOW! I see where he's going!" etc.
For instance, the number 19 crops up many times, as does the color red (or crimson, if you like that better), as does the theme of children bonding for life and for better or for worse, no matter where their adulthood may take them, King's own accident, etc. But in addition to the many references to King's other works and life (which I've barely even touched on), there are references here to many external things that I never recognized before. Things like twice calling Duddits a "tribble", which is a reference to Star Trek, or like the red growth that is very reminiscent of the mossy red flora from 'The War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells (and speaking of, Dean Koontz borrowed the idea for his semi-recentish book 'The Taking'), or the "Turn the dial up to 11" line from the movie "This is Spinal Tap".
Aside from all of these references, the story itself was a "pisser", as Beaver would say. Three parts sci-fi, one part fantasy and a tablespoon-full of tongue-in-cheek prophecy, it's definitely a rollercoaster. I mentioned to friends when I started this book (or maybe I just wrote it down, I dunno) that it reads like a movie. Lots of King's books do, which is possibly why so many have been adapted, but this one especially felt that way to me. I would set the book down for a minute, to freshen my drink, or move a cat-paw that was creeping oh-so-subtly onto the page because everyone knows that cats can't sleep next to a reading human unless they are obstructing the view in some way, and it would be just like I pressed the pause button. When I pick the story back up, I'm right back where I was, like the interruption never occurred.
We start out meeting Pete, Beaver, Jonesy and Henry as adults, and then throughout the story we find out about their childhood and what (and who) bonded them together. Beaver is my favorite character. Dubbed such an appealing and cool nickname due to his habit of always chewing on a toothpick, he has a foul mouth and a heart of gold. I love the way King describes Beaver, and shows us his general character in three sentences: "His glasses started to unfog then, and he saw the stranger on the couch. He lowered his hands, slowly, then smiled. That was one of the reasons Jonesy had loved him ever since grade school, although the Beav could be tiresome and wasn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier, by any means: his first reaction to the unplanned and unexpected wasn't a frown but a smile." This passage makes me love him too. He's got a bit of innocence about him... and a kind of raunchy purity.
I'm not going to go into the rest of the guys, that would take a long time... but I would like to talk about the characters. Suffice it to say that each of the friends are perfect and flawed in their own ways, but none of them are as dear to me as Beaver. I love Duddits too, who is really innocent perfection epitomized. He's got Down Syndrome, and with that a kind of extrasensory ability that makes him special- probably more special than anyone else.
Roberta Cavell, Duddits's mom, is another of my favorite characters. She's got very small parts in this story, but each and every one of them touch my heart. The woman is almost saintly! When Duddit's leaves with Henry, and Roberta crumples, it just breaks my heart. King spent barely two pages on this, but I felt it as if it was happening to me.
Abe Kurtz, the main military madman, is plain old crazy like a fox and as unpredictable as a tornado. Owen Underhill is Kurtz's right hand man, but one who happens to still have a spark of humanity in him. And speaking of humanity, this brings me to Mr. Gray...
Mr. Gray is an alien life form whose sole purpose is to survive by any means necessary. Not just himself, but his race. These aliens are alien in every sense of the word. They are inhuman, don't understand humans, don't understand our emotions or thoughts or anything. They just seek to continue to exist and emotionlessly do what it takes to ensure that. They are smart, but in a wily, calculating way. Mr. Gray finds and infiltrates Jonesy's body, in a kind of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" way. (This happens quite early in the story, so I'm not giving anything away, don't worry.) What happens then though, to Mr. Gray specifically, is very interesting to me.
King is really a master at showing us what humanity looks like. All parts of it. His stories are all people stories in which horror or gore or whatever is used to bring out the best and worst in us. If King ever had a theme, that's it. But here we have an inhuman, emotionless, calculating being who has none of that - only a relentless will to propagate. And then King shows us how this being starts to become human. And this I find fascinating, because it's one thing to plumb the depths of someone's soul and find out who they really are, but it's something else entirely to watch someone becoming that person.
"Becoming" is usually depicted as that which we know turning into something we don't know, something that terrifies or horrifies us. People turning into monsters, vampires, or werewolves are the most common supernatural cases. But slowly slipping into madness is another case, and 'The Shining' comes instantly to mind as Jack becomes more and more unstable and dangerous. But here we have an alien becoming human - craving food, thrilling in the human emotions that it's never before experienced, enjoying curiosity for the first time, feeling the rush of adrenaline and wanting more and more - and I thought it was fascinating to see humanity being the unknown and feared trait... to see things from the other perspective.
Anyway, I really did enjoy this story this time around. I enjoyed it the first time, but this time I feel like I got so much more out of it. This book is entertaining in its own right, but much much more so for the Constant Reader who can spot all the references embedded within it. :)
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Dreamcatcher
Wow, Becky, you're on a Stephen King roll!
This year is going to be my Stephen King year. :)
Books Read: 9Total Pages Read: 4019
Average # Pages per book: 446
9.
Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick by Richard AbanesMy review is too long to actually post, so here is a link: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Books Read: 10Total Pages Read: 4413
Average # Pages per book: 441
10.
Duel: Terror Stories By Richard Matheson by Richard MathesonI think it's a bad sign when I feel like my own rating is unfair to the book. =\
The first book of Matheson's that I had ever read was I Am Legend, which to this day is still my favorite. The stories in that book were wonderful, and quite a few have stayed with me to this day. Then I read What Dreams May Come, and while I didn't necessarily agree with the ideological aspect, the writing was great. So, coming into this book, I had pretty high expectations, and I feel like I was let down, a little.
These stories are definitely more science fiction than horror, which was another little let down. Don't get me wrong, I love science fiction too, but I was hoping for horror, and I didn't really get it.
That being said, the stories here were mostly good, with some that rose a bit higher, and some that faltered. The only one that just did not work for me at all was "When The Waker Sleeps". This one was written in second person narrative, and you tried and tried to get into the story, but no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't get past the personification of "you" being a brown-haired male wearing a tunic and tights getting into a car to go fight off some thing that was supposedly endangering your machines. Yeah. Really.
I think this one was probably an experiment for Matheson... Second person narrative is extremely difficult to do right, even by someone as talented as Matheson is. Tried three times, then I moved on.
If I had to choose a favorite, I would probably have to pick either "Return" or "One For The Books". Oddly enough, both of these are halves of two story related sets. "Return" and "F---" both featured the same main character and same theme, although they are very different stories themselves. "Trespass" and "One For The Books" have the same theme and... "purpose" I guess you could say, although there is nothing else similar in the stories at all.
Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I'd have to add "The Test" to my list of favorites. This is a kind of "Death Panel" story as elderly people are given a set of memory, aptitude, physical and mental tests in order to determine whether they are high-functioning enough to be allowed to live another 5 years until the next test. It deals with the sociological issues that might arise from that kind of situation, or the lack thereof. It could be quite prophetic, you never know.
"Born of Man and Woman" is rather short, and a little bit haunting. There are no real details given, but from what we're able to deduce from the narration, our narrator lives a cruel existence. I found it to be very sad, and actually wished that the story was longer so that I could understand better. I felt like this one was rushed, not fully fleshed out. But, maybe that was on purpose. Our narrator only told what they knew, little though it may be.
"Brother to the Machine" was an interesting one, and was kind of similar to "Steel" (which I believe was made into a Twilight Zone episode), but I am not sure if they are actually related. Could be. "Brother" is about a robot who feels human, and examines what humanity really is.
I'm not going to go into all of the stories. I liked most of them, but I never really felt compelled to read this one as I felt compelled to read other Matheson, and other authors' works. I would definitely recommend it to science fiction fans, as Matheson is a must-read, in my opinion, but this is not his best, again in my opinion.
Becky, I haven't read this one but I wouldn't recommend Button, Button: Uncanny Stories very much either as much as I love Matheson. It had a couple good stories in but I had trouble getting into the book as a whole.
Oh, I would recommend Duel though. It wasn't BAD... it just wasn't that great to me. Maybe if my expectations had been different I wouldn't have felt that way... You know?
yeah, actually Button, Button has one of my favorite Matheson stories in it called No Such Thing as A Vampire, I think I was under a lot of stress when I read that book which may have made me like it less.
I'll have to look into that one some day. Not anytime soon... I think the next Matheson I read will be another novel. Probably Hell House. I have that one on the shelf. :)
Books Read: 12 Total Pages Read: 4863
Average # Pages per book: 405
11.
A Thousand Lies by D.W. St. John (98 pgs) 1 StarReview: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
12. The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (352 pgs) 4 stars
Review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Books Read: 13 Total Pages Read: 5231
Average # Pages per book: 403
13.
Cry No More by Linda Howard (368 pgs) 4 starReview: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
I keep forgetting to update! Books Read: 17
Total Pages Read: 6562
Average # Pages per book: 386
14.
An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina (207 pgs) 4 starReview: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
15.
20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (316 pgs) 4 starReview: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
16.
Soulless by Gail Carriger (357 pgs) 5 starReview: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
17.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (451 pgs) (Audio) 5 starReview: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Books Read: 18Total Pages Read: 7127
Average # Pages per book: 396
18.
Sepulchre by Kate Mosse (565 pgs) 2 starReview: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Books Read: 20Total Pages Read: 7600
Average # Pages per book: 380
19.
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (369 pgs) 4 starReview: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
20.
Magic Terror by Peter Straub (only read 104 pgs) 1 starReview: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Books Read: 21 Total Pages Read: 8103
Average # Pages per book: 385
21.
Christine by Stephen King (503 pgs) 4 starReview: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
The Next Best Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Drawing of the Three (other topics)Heidegger's Glasses (other topics)
Changeless (other topics)
Blameless (other topics)
The Heart is Not a Size (other topics)
More...
So, I will just track, and see what happens.
Happy 2010 Reading! :)
Happy Reading!