July 2007 Archives

So I mentioned a while back that I was going to try to read a Stephen King novel, but was somewhat worried about my capacity to sleep at night.

As it turns out, I find it easier to read a scary novel (and more interesting, for that matter), than to see a scary movie. Perhaps it's because I have no control over the movie, or that given my affinity for music, a great score might be more powerful than words. Regardless, I've just finished my fourth book of his, and these are some quick thoughts on what I've read so far.

The Tommyknockers: A bit of an odd book of King's to start with, given the more science-fiction bent of the plot. Still, it was rather interesting if not as entirely scary as I thought it might be.

Misery: I had seen the movie, so the plot wasn't exactly a mystery. Still, his portrayal of Annie Wilkes was stunning and horrifying. Also, having read a few of his books, I thought he did an excellent job of keeping the plot moving with only two characters and one setting. The other books, while they tend to focus on two characters, usually have a lot more side plots and weave through a variety of locations.

Pet Semetary: Talk about scary. Easily the only book that really gave me a sense of the heebie-jeebies. The ending definitely made sleep difficult the night I finished the book.

'Salem's Lot: Somewhat disappointing, actually. Once I realized that the plot was not so much about the occult and more about vampires, I became a little bit bored. He did managed to weave a good vampire tale, though, I just think the overexposure to Vampires that I've had (from Bram Stoker's Dracula to the Buffy series) made the plot seem a little cheap.

Books I've yet to read but want to:

Carrie, The Shining, and the novel that has traumatized more people than any other I can think of, It.

There's a boy who lives next door to us (probably the oldest of only a few kids on the block), who likes to ride his bike around the neighborhood. One day, when Carrie and I were loading up our bikes on our car to go for a ride, he asked if we'd join him a bit. We obliged, but had no idea about the implications of our actions.

It started innocently enough, with him catching us on the way to the store, asking if we'd join him on a ride, but before too long, he was knocking on our door on a daily basis.

Naturally, I became a little bit aggravated by this behavior, even getting to the point where I was dreading the inevitable knock. Well, earlier today, I remembered a bit of my own childhood. I grew up on a street with no kids of my age, but there were two older boys who were in high school. I remember playing basketball and football with them on a number of occasions, but never paused to think about how they must have felt to have this young kid bugging them all the time.

So I sucked it up and decided to pass along the favor to our neighbor. We did ten laps around our block this evening. I won 3 laps and he took 7. The last one came right down to the wire, but I was barely defeated. I've no doubt, though, that I'll have my chance for revenge tomorrow.