Two steaming cups of chocolate goodness. Courtesy of whomever I swiped it from out of the cupboard.

Ben ,'The Killer In Me'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


javachik - Jan 10, 2011 10:43:01 am PST #13489 of 28282
Our wings are not tired.

Which was this? I read his recent baseball story, Blockade Billy , which I really loved and then downloaded Ur on my Kindle, which I also enjoyed. So, I decided to start at the beginning. I read Carrie last year and TCG gave me Salem's Lot for Christmas which I also loved.

Full Moon, No Stars


Consuela - Jan 10, 2011 10:44:18 am PST #13490 of 28282
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

I've only read the original edit of The Stand, and IIRC, there was a Trashcan Man.

Life is too short for me to find time to read an even longer version of a novel that gave me weeks of quasi-PTSD every time I heard anyone cough...

I consider King to be valedictorian of the first graduating class of the "Too Popular to Edit" school of novelists. Other alum include Anne Rice and JK Rowling. I look with disfavor on this development: nobody is above editing.


sj - Jan 10, 2011 10:48:22 am PST #13491 of 28282
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."

Full Moon, No Stars

I didn't realize that that was a collection. I thought it was a novel.


javachik - Jan 10, 2011 11:03:38 am PST #13492 of 28282
Our wings are not tired.

Nope, it's four stories, sj.

Consuela, the editing thing is why I can't read Dave Eggars or (my boyfriend's favorite) William T Vollman. I just can't sog through pages and pages of meandering. Editors exist for a reason, dammit.


Fred Pete - Jan 10, 2011 11:09:09 am PST #13493 of 28282
Ann, that's a ferret.

Trashcan Man was definitely in the original Stand.

It's been a long time since I read either version, but the main thing that sticks out is that Harold had a larger role in the longer version, so he comes across as more tragic than in the original.


Amy - Jan 10, 2011 11:13:03 am PST #13494 of 28282
Because books.

What am I misremembering? I have no time to go read and compare both now, darn it.

java, I think it's Full Dark, No Stars.


erin_obscure - Jan 10, 2011 12:21:50 pm PST #13495 of 28282
Occasionally I’m callous and strange

I was ruminating on Stephen King last night and why i've loved so many of his books for so many years...and i think it's that his world building is amazing. So many books start right in our normal world, then gradually shift to an alternate reality so seamlessly that i don't notice the change until the story captivates my sleeping and waking thoughts.

Since reading Salems Lot more than 20 years ago I still am hesitant to walk down basement stairs, even with the lights on. Some things just stick with you.


§ ita § - Jan 10, 2011 12:25:07 pm PST #13496 of 28282
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Seagulls. The Talisman. Though that might have been the other guy.


javachik - Jan 10, 2011 12:31:44 pm PST #13497 of 28282
Our wings are not tired.

Amy, yes. My memory is extremely poor these days.


Polter-Cow - Jan 10, 2011 12:32:58 pm PST #13498 of 28282
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

The Talisman was written with Peter Straub.