Stephen King

One of my all time favorite authors is Stephen King. He is one of the most revolutionary authors in history, known for his horror and mystery books, high in popularity. Most of his stories have strong cult followings, and many were made into blockbuster films, like Carrie and The Shining. His career came to a roaring start with Carrie, written in 1974. Two years later, it was made into a movie. He has written many novels including Christine, Misery, Cujo and Different Seasons, which inspired one of the most touching movies of all time, The Shawshank Redemption. One of his most recent books, Under the Dome, has made it to the small screen primetime crowd on CBS. I am currently reading one of his latest works, Joyland. This is just a blog post promoting some of the other books by King and also King himself. Stay tuned for what else I have to say about Joyland. Take care.

Joyland: How it Begins

Joyland is the fairly new hit novel by Stephen King. I decided to read it for the holiday season. It begins by a college kid named Devin who is just shaping up after a breakup. He decides to make some moolah by working at a theme park. Try to guess the name of the park. This is all the information that has been fed to my head at this time, but I'll keep you guys posted on what happens next...

My Holiday Time Killer

In American logic, once Thanksgiving's behind us, Christmas has officially begun, and this year it has come way too soon. Now, however, is an appropriate time to be having the M&M's They Do Exist ad airing every hour - Black Friday is over. With nothing to do other than to do schoolwork and to watch Deck the Halls and Elf every weekend, I should associate these acts of uselessness with a bit of reading, just to make sure that my brain isn't being lazy while my body is. I decided to entertain myself with a little more of Stephen King. I went to the library and was originally intending to check out Doctor Sleep, the official sequel to The Shining, which I read last Spring. All of the copies (there were tons of them) were either checked out already, or on hold. So, I decided to go with another one of his new releases, the Hard Case Crime thriller, Joyland. Reading the back cover and the front cover captions, I have figured out that an amusement park worker has to face his ex-girlfriend--and many worse fears. I shall give updates on the book over the holiday season (in which Christmas is the last holiday left, I assume). Stay tuned!

Summer Reading: What I Did

2004 was a year in which nothing much has happened. The new iMac was released, it only lasted a couple years until the next one. Many cars were introduced in 2004, Friends was at its final season. So here's a little throwback post. At the end of Middle School, we were all assigned to read a book for the summer that was the winner of one of these awards; YALSA or ALEX. I did some research, and the novel I had chosen to occupy my summer was a pretty deep one. The book was called Donorboy. The book had lots of thought put into it when Brendan Halpin (the author) wrote this novel. It's about a girl named Rosalind, whose lesbian parents die in a car accident (like Paul Walker did a few days ago, may he rest in peace). After a lot of (soul) searching, she moves in with her biological father, Sean, a single man in his mid-thirties whose only friend is an unsuccessful lawyer. He is ecstatic that he finally has someone living with him, but still has second thoughts when it comes to responsibility and taking care of the child. For example, when he notices Ros smoking on the rooftop, he doesn't bother telling her to stop, but just emails her to never do it again, or at least not at his house.  Their bond grows stronger and stronger to the point when he goes running from coast to coast in search for his daughter after she runs away to find out more about her late parents. The book ends by just stating that life between Ros and Sean has been good so far and things seem like they are going to go just fine. The knack about this novel is that it is written entirely out of emails and diary entries. Despite of this complex system of literature, it is a good read and deserves its ALEX award. I do highly recommend this book to anyone who is in for a challenge that doesn't involve a remote control. After a few pages, you'll get used to this book's format, and you will be satisfied with the entertainment. So go ahead and check out Donorboy at your local library. (If you have time) I do apologize for the cheesy ending, have a fantastic week!

Survey of the Month: December 2013

Our survey this month will bring some tears to the eye. There are those sad moments in movies and TV, like in the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie when him and Patrick cry to form a heart of tears, or in the Futurama episode, Jurassic Bark, when Fry thinks that his old dog forgot about him, but was actually waiting for him for the rest of his life. But this is a blog about books, so this month, we ask a question. Which book is more sad? The survey is located under the name of this website, just vote up and you're done. Share your opinion on literature with this monthly survey, with varying topics like 'Which author had the best books,' or 'Which character had more character.' It's all on this website so vote away!

Under the Dome: Made for CBS and Book Enthusiasts Alike

The last book I read was Under the Dome by Stephen King. I absolutelty loved it, from front to back cover. With its diversity of characters, some good and some evil, plot twists galore and some moments that will truly shock the reader. Moments like when the mentally twisted Junior breaks into high school sweetheart Angie's house and kills her, presumably to make up for revenge. This book had so many accolades that it made the small screen on CBS, with its TV show of the same name. From my perspective, the goal of this novel is to reach out to the reader and teach him/her a lesson as to how society reacts to a situation when they are confined in one specific space. The first few events seem a bit fishy but then, as Ron Burgundy would put it, things would escalate quickly. It all makes sense when our main character, Dale "Barbie" Barbara, an army veteran, witnesses a plane explode out of nowhere, when it really has struck the invisible dome that has enclosed the small Maine town of Chester's Mill. Throughout the book, the insanity increases, and so does the city's realization that they are, well, UNDER THE DOME. The events that take place in this book are what King believes will happen when supernatural disaster like being confined in a forcefield, and he'd be right. There's just a couple problems; 1. This book, like many other Stephen King novels (excluding The Shining and Misery, both of which I have read) takes place in Maine. It would be much more chaotic and much more interesting if this sort of thing would happen in New York City. 2. Something like this wuld never happen, so it's not a guide to the apocalypse, it's just there to entertain you, and that's what I like about this book. So if you're one of those ridiculous preppers who take suspense novels as advisories for the end of the world, then Under the Dome isn't for you. And neither is War of the Worlds. If you're prepping for the apocalypse, how about giving books on astronomy a try.