Stephen King for those of you not subscribed to Entertainment Weekly. 75% of the reason I even get the magazine is for the article he writes in it every 3rd issue or so.
I just finished reading “Under The Dome”, a behemoth of a book. 1073 pages to be exact. I got it for present day from my husband and finally just finished it. The book is so big that carrying it around for casual reading was almost impossible, which is why it took me so long to finish it. I loved it. I spent the first half of the book anxious to find out the outcome, and the second half scared about what it might be.
If you’ve ever read a King book, you know it’s not always going to have a happy ending. In fact, you can almost count on it. Not in the tragic way where every main character dies, leaving you anguished that you invested so many hours reading the book. The “heroes” usually survive, and the “villains” usually don’t. I think it’s a fair approach where not everything works out perfectly.
This one was no exception. Only it took that much longer to get to the end, and the climax took 200 tension filled pages to resolve. I tried finishing one night, and my eyes were tearing up out of fatigue as opposed to the sorrow I would later do the same for. People die. Kids, dogs, etc… It’s a King book, of course people die.
This isn’t me reviewing the book. I love Stephen King, he’s my favorite, so of course I loved the book.
I don’t like the idea of reviewing a book. To me a book is far more personal than a movie or TV. It requires a far bigger investment of time from the person offering the story as well as the person reading it. A movie only takes up a couple of hours of your time. A book, however, takes up many, many hours. In some cases, days. One person (with the help of their first reader and editor) offered up a great deal of time telling us a story. It took Uncle Stevie from November 2007 to March 2009 to tell me this one. That’s how long it took him to write it. Sure, it was a bigger story than most, but you get my point.
With a book, you can imagine the characters looking almost any way you want them to. I’m usually the character, man or woman, child or dog. I take my post in the the story and do what I’m told. It’s easier for me to get lost in a book because I become the characters and feel what I’m supposed to feel. I hate who I’m supposed to and care for who I should. Movies are a great escape for me. I get lost in the story of someone else. Books, however, were always my way of getting away from my life and becoming someone else.
It was my therapy growing up. I guess that’s why I’ve always felt that a book is more personal.
I have to read that one. Now that you’re done with it I might be able to rip it up in a couple weeks.