Fun Reading
February 11th, 2009
My current book of choice is The Stand by Stephen King. I usually have a few books in the rotation, and do so now, but the other two are going to be on the shelf until this one is completed. It is awesome so far, and I can hardly put it down. It is on my reading list as well.
King is not one of my favorite writers. While trying to read some of his other books, I have found him to be a bit to wordy. His writing is wonderful, but I don’t really need a ten page description about a cup of coffee some drunk in a bar was sipping on.
The Stand is a big volume at over 1,100 pages, but having got about a quarter of the way through it, I have not found it boring in the least. The other book that I have completed of his was The Shining, which was excellent as well.
So for now Atlas Shrugged and the book I am reading on WW2 code breaking are just going to have to wait.
Categories: Books | Tags: fiction, reading list
What irritates me most about King isn’t so much that he overdescribes; it’s that he REPEATS AND REPEATS the same description over and over again. So fat that first description, every time the character comes back into frame he repeats a thumbnail of it etc…
That said, “The Stand” is I think a truly great piece of fantastic speculative fiction.
Some authors… tap into something… if you know what I mean? They write it, and when you read it you know they “get it”. King is one of them.
He definitely gets it.
I am amazed by some of the things he comes up with really, and am in awe of that kind of talent. Just a simple one sentence thought comes up, and you are stunned by a good writer’s brilliance. I try to look out for those moments when reading really. It is easy to pass them by.
Maybe you are right on the repeating himself thing. I noticed last night, that I was saying to myself at one spot, “Yeah I know this, get on with it.”. Of course that may have just my anticipation for the payoff that is coming. So far, the disease is spreading around, but has not hit PSH status yet.
I am eagerly waiting for that.