"There is no friend as loyal as a book." -Ernest Hemingway

"There is no friend as loyal as a book." -Ernest Hemingway

I love to read. Books provide an escape, relaxation, and mental stimulation. As life gets more and more frenetic, simply curling up with a good book becomes even rarer and more needed in my life (and, I suspect, many other lives as well). Books are steady and stalwart, capable of holding up a wobbly table or changing a stubborn mind. They truly can be loyal friends.


As a voracious reader, I tend to rather eclectic tastes. I've read several books a week for probably 15+ years now, and have read everything from classics, to pulp/popular fiction, to nonfiction. And, after all that reading, I am starting to lose track of which books I've read. So this blog will act as a record for me as well as a chance for me to give opinions (which I hope will be found valuable) on the hobby I spend the most time on. In my reviews, I plan on addressing such aspects as language, idea, character development, etc.


May my love of books be passed on to others in this book. I am always looking for new reading material, so if you have anything you'd like to suggest I read, please do. I welcome any comments you may have. Happy reading!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

11/22/63



Stephen King, fiction, thriller, suspense

Plot: B    Characters: A-    Prose: A-    Language: C+ (Actually not too bad by Stephen King standards, fairly heavy at times, frequent f-bombs)    Adult themes: some sex, strong violence, abuse.

Overall Score: B (not too shabby, but not King's best by a long shot)

Fairly normal by Stephen King standards, the hero of this story is directed to a hole in time that opens on the same point in the 1950s. Events done in this past period effectively change the future, and horrific acts done int he past can be rectified, if approached thoroughly. However, the past is obdurate (a phrase seen often in the book). The vast bulk of the 800+ pages of this novel deals with the challenges the protagonist of the story encounters while trying to prevent the assassination of JFK.

Stephen King is one of my all time favorite authors. Nobody can put words on a page like he does, discussing the most mundane, everyday events in such a way that the reader cannot put the book down. I've read everything he has ever written, and one of my all time favorite books is King's 'Salem's Lot, but unfortunately 11/22/63 just isn't quite up to his normal riveting standards. Typically, I finish a 900+ page Stephen King book in as short as a couple of days (good thing I function just fine on little sleep...), but this one took more like a weekish to get through its 850 pages. A good amount of it is devoted to fairly repetitive dialogue and narration of events, which doesn't grab the reader as well as it could. The characters are quite well developed, perhaps better than most of King's other characters, and the relationships become the focus, which is a refreshing change. And it isn't as downright bizarre as many of King's other novels.

While slightly disappointing for a fan of Stephen King (his other recent works, Under the Dome and Duma Key, were more compelling than this book, if not quite as engrossing as his classic works), 11/22/63 was still a solid read.
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1 comment:

  1. AmalieJune 6, 2012 at 9:51 AM

    It did take you a while to read that book. It did surprise me given that it was a Stephen King book, but I thought that maybe it was because I kept distracting you :)

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