What Are You Reading?

[caruso_stalker217]

finished this today. Reminded me a bit of Doctor Sleep in that it's perfectly readable, but the ground has been so well-trod by King at this point that you have to wonder why he bothered writing it in the first place. Many of his tropes are here, but again the stakes are so low and the characters less vibrant and interesting than in most of his other work.

This book has an edge over Doctor Sleep in that it isn't actively terrible and the good guys at least incure a few losses, even if those characters weren't exactly crucial or left much of an impression.

Overall, the villain and his (its?) lacky are fairly impotent and ineffective and easily dispatched by the heroes.

I don't imagine I'll be taking this one off the shelf ever again.

[so sorry]

...Reminded me a bit of Doctor Sleep in that it's perfectly readable, but the ground has been so well-trod by King at this point that you have to wonder why he bothered writing it in the first place.

New York Times Current Best Sellers

At roughly 30 bucks a pop....

[caruso_stalker217]

The man doesn't need the money. Of course the truth is King couldn't stop writing if he tried, I think. It's not a switch he can flip on and off. So we get this stuff.

Here's a fun game to play. What is the most recent King book that you've actually read more than once?

For me, it's The Wind Through The Keyhole which was published six years ago. The next most recent King book I've reread? The Dark Tower VII, from 2004.

I think the man is done writing classics.

[TheBaxter]

i'm not much of a re-reader (too many books i haven't even read once yet, and not nearly enough time to read them (cue burgess meredith's broken glasses))... the only books on my list of King re-reads, not counting short story collections, are Salems Lot, Pet Sematary, The Stand, The Shining and It. i'm planning on re-reading It before the next film comes out, and was thinking of rereading the Shining because i'm staying a couple nights at the Stanley Hotel this summer, but i probably won't have time and so i'll just rewatch the Kubrick film, which i prefer to the book anyway.

so the most recent book of his i've reread or would reread is IT. from 1986. about the only recent work of his i'd consider re-reading is 11/22/63 or Joyland. both of those were much better than his typical output these days, but i'm not that driven to go back to either.

i agree King is a bit of a compulsive writer. i think he'd be much better if he spent more time rewriting and editing his stuff, instead of just endlessly churning it out, but who's gonna tell him to change, when any books of his is a guaranteed bestseller? if he was putting out a book every 2-3 years, instead of 1-2 books per year, the volume might go down but the quality would likely go way up.

[so sorry]

Here's a fun game to play. What is the most recent King book that you've actually read more than once?

I've read The Stand probably 3 or 4 times. Its been a while, maybe I'll dust it off later this year.

[Fievel]

I think I've only re-read The Stand and the Dark Tower series (some books more than others).

[Al Shut]

Probably The Green Mile but then again all King books I've read where burrowed from my parents and it could well be the last recent I read at all.

[Al Shut]

Digging through a box of German childhood horror-pulp bullshit.

Torment and delight at the same time.

[Ribbons]

Torment because the books are scary, or torment because the books are terrible?

[Al Shut]

Definitely terrible!

Scares are nonexistent, even tension is very rare, language is clunky to the point that at times it seems awkwardly translated although it was written in German.
At least once the author forgets what he wrote before and repeats a shocking revelation from twenty pages earlier.
It seems no idea is ludicrous enough to not be used, understandible at a pace of one story a week and part of it's insane appeal (the delight)

[Al Shut]

I just realized that the latest reissue has only reached #22 (of over 2000) and that the price has less than doubled in over two decades. Pretty tempted to jump right back in.