Finished reading Joyland by Stephen King. I’ll give it a 7.5/10
With knowing nothing about the book other than what was written on the back, I was expecting, (not necessarily wanting) a little more of an extreme supernatural touch when I learned that the book involved murder and a haunted house inside a B grade theme park. But what I got was better, I thought.
The character connections was as strong as in the Shining to the point where you were really became concerned and interested in the fate of their lives - which I enjoyed even more as I hadn’t watched a movie about this book it and had no idea where we were headed.
It was a story that could have theoretically happened in real life with some heavy symbolism added while being witnessed and lived through the eyes of a relatable 21 year old with a broken heart.
Ill read Drawing of the three next and after that will probably either be the Body, Misery, or IT.
Not something that I’m reading now, but I was reminded of a micro-genre where a journalist does a deep dive into some scene and ends up competing at a high level. The prime example for me is Positively Fifth Street about WSOP. Two other ones that come to mind are Word Freak about Scrabble and Moonwalking with Einstein about memory competitions.
Yeah, I looked at The Colorado Kid, Later and Mr Mercedes but some of those weren’t exactly well liked so I went with Joyland.
A lot of the fun for me is just deciding which book to read next. I want to purposefully read some of his lesser loved books because for starters, it would be kind of deflating to just read his overall ten best and be left with the rest but also because everyone has a wildly different ranking on what they think was good and what was trash.
Random rant but Ebay has been my go to source for buying books and it really is amazing just how cheap they are. I bought Desperation hardcover in “very good” con for $5.39 free shipping and another paperback for on a separate order for 4.19 which is interesting considering shipping 1lb media mail costs 4.68 now. I remember buying a paperback version of the Shining for 21.97 at Barnes and Noble 20 years ago.
I get it, it can all be read online, but a few dollars for a hardcover to my house seems like a good deal.
That’s such a short work that I can’t help but hope you also read the entirety of the Different Seasons collection of which it’s a part, assuming you have not already read the other stories. Apt Pupil and Shawshank are excellent.
I didn’t realize this until I worked at a library, but they have a used book section where hardcovers sell for $1. Resellers come in and gobble up the inventory and then still more than quadruple their profit reselling at cheap prices. I imagine the resellers do the same thing at thrift stores like Goodwill.
I have developed kind of an obsession with going to Goodwills and looking for King books. There are 2 Goodwills in my city, one has a book case that looks like a bomb went off but the other one has a very nicely organized case. I’ve purchased 6 or 8 of his books after finding them at Goodwill. It takes a bit of work obviously but it’s really fun to be scanning a shelf full of “Girl with a Dragon Tattoo” books and then find a King. They cost anywhere between $3 and $10, depending on condition of book.
There’s a library within walking distance of me. Didn’t know they have a for sale section! I’m going to to check out their used book section later today (:
I just finished Lisey’s Story and loved the second half of it. The first half was difficult for me because I felt apathetic toward’s Lisey in general, and her family situation and relationship with Scott more specifically. I thought it was a lot of pages just to get to the meat of the story.
That said, I loved the second half. The story took a complete turn from where I expected it to go, and that surprised me in an exciting way. I ended up really rooting for Lisey and appreciating her and Scott’s love for one another.
Of the King books that I’ve read, 3 of my 4 favorites are all love stories. Lisey’s Story, 11/22/63, and Bag of Bones. I guess it could be argued that there’s a love story central to The Stand (my fave book), but it’s not the same dynamic as the other 3 books.
I’m not sure what to read next. I’m tempted to start IT and see if we can get a book club going, but I just don’t feel ready to commit to that book yet. I am pretty certain I’m going to love it, and I just kinda want to save it for later. Same with Under the Dome.
I’ve got Dolores Claiborne, Thinner, and Gerald’s Game all sitting on my shelf. I might go for Dolores.
I just started It today. Just read Long Walk, The Running Man, Pet Semetary and Salem’s Lot in the past couple weeks. Figured I should probably read one of his most famous works.
I haven’t read any stories in Different Seasons and didn’t even know that it was a particular story in that book but I had heard that The Body was supposedly the story of Stand by Me which I thought would be a fun read - even though I kind of wanted to stay away from books that were adapted into movies that I had already seen.
I was looking to buy it and later realized that it had already been a part of my little SK collection that I had collected and had situated on a shelf.
I read Different Seasons recently and highly recommend you go for it. As Risky said, The Body is great but Apt Pupil is even better imo and of course Shawshank is a classic.
Even though you’ve seen the movie, I think it’s still possible to really enjoy The Body. King does such an efficient job of developing characters under a limited page count, and the standoff at the end feels SO intense. Also the way the kids talk to each other is hilarious. I eulogized my mom in July and I started my speech with a quote from The Body.
The last story is super meh. It’s kinda like a comedown after finishing the first three stories; not much happens but it’s nice to just use your imagination and try to put yourself into/visualize the scenes without having to grasp elaborate plot.
Gave up on It about 100 pages in. The introductions to all of the main characters is some of the most long winded rubbish I’ve read in a while. Maybe I’ll skip the rest of those eventually and get back into it but I have some other stuff to read right now.
I’ve got about 50 pages left in this and just wanted to say WOW is this a fun ride. It’s like a modern day Edge of Tomorrow if the tech to reset time fell into the wrong hands.
Will be moving on to Dark Matter after this. I’m curious also to read the Wayward Pines trilogy given how much I enjoyed the first season adaptation.
Thanks. As far as the Art of Darkness, I only read the Christine chapter of that book - because I thought Christine was excellent.
For those who aren’t aware, the Art of Darkness kind of goes into detail on how each book came into fruition and all the backstories, meanings, snags and a lot of other cool stuff - at least the chapter on Christine did.
