The longer I live, the more I realize that time is something of my enemy.
There's never enough of it. No matter how early I start, no matter how many lists I make and items I cross up, I always find myself in the same position: it's nearly 11:00 at night and I still haven't had the amount necessary to accomplish everything I wish I had.
I think it's time for another list at Henry Harbor.
Tomorrow, though. Right now, I'm too whipped.
Maybe if I didn't have to be up and ready to take on the world so early tomorrow, it would be different. But maybe not.
If this whole pesky sleep thing didn't always get in the way...
30 April 2014
29 April 2014
So... I've Basically Been Cheating on You With Henry Harbor
I don't seem to be able to maintain fidelity to my personal blog the way that I really ought to. The Stephen King in 2013 status posts have moved into a new wave at Henry Harbor, something I knew was bound to happen, but it seems awfully unethical for me to leave behind this great space that I've had going for so many years. Even if I haven't exactly been great about maintaining. Here's where I am with the Stephen King in 2013 endeavor. What should I call it now? Maybe The Stephen King Challenge? The Dark Tower or Bust? Regardless, here's where things stand...
Following the unapologetic waste that was Fifty Shades of Grey, I desperately needed to cleanse my palate with the sorbet that is Stephen King — there’s nothing better than getting back to the roots of what really got me to be a reader in the first place, and it’s been several months since I dipped my nose into one of the grand tomes from the modern master of storytelling. Probably because of the Stephen King in 2013debacle. But the idea was something of an incredible endeavor. And a goal I never should have set for myself in the first place.
For Christmas 2012, my sister got me a boxed set of the first four books in the Dark Tower series, something that she and every other lover of Stephen King swears to be his magnum opus, his greatest work; however, in spite of being exposed to the author in the second grade (by the same chick who gave me the great Christmas present), I’d never once opened a single one of these particular volumes. I just assumed that it was in a realm of his mind that I never really cared to enter. There are others that fall into this sub-genre of his work. The Talisman and The Eyes of the Dragon are two other titles that come to mind. I’m an old school horror fan. I was raised on Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, Stephen King’s haunted hotel and the story of Pennywise the Clown. I love the idea that “we all float down here” and the fact that “the Overlook hotel has a kind of a shine to it.” I loved watching Chris pull the cord and the bucket of pig blood dropping onto Sissy Spacek’s prom dress and Dee Wallace clutching her son in the stark heat of summer as a rabid dog attacks the car. I delight in picking out which one of the female actresses will end up being the final girl in the movie and outwitting the stalker. I like my terror fiction filled with ghosts and rain and misty evenings and demonic possessions and things that go bump in the night. I didn’t want my image of King tainted by fantasy and/or the suggestion of (gasp!) speculative fiction.
My sister was insistent, and she couldn’t wait for me to start reading so that I could find out what everyone else had so often told me: the Dark Tower series ties together every word and every work that the master of modern horror fiction has ever written. Any self-respecting fan MUST read them. Otherwise, he or she falls short.
So I started with The Gunslinger.
And I didn’t get it.
I didn’t dislike the book. I just noticed that the language was different. The story was different. And nothing on the pages felt inviting or familiar, like coming home to the old friend that exists in most of Stephen King’s work.
The worst part was that I knew I was supposed to get it. And I was supposed to love it. So I figured there was something missing, and there was only one way to really get it the way everyone else did: read everything that Stephen King published, in chronological order, and write about it in my blog along the way. That’s what anyone else would do, right?
Well, I made it all the way through his first short story collection, Night Shift. All of the books, with the exception of Rage — which he published under his pseudonym from his early career — were some that I’d read before. I enjoyed going back, remembering, and picking up on aspects that I missed the first go-round.
Unfortunately, I fell off the wagon sometime around Thanksgiving of last year, and I went on a Stephen King-free diet. I never got around to the next title in the chronological bibliography, The Stand.
Until now.
So, here I am again. Giving this whole strict Stephen King diet another shot, and I want to encourage everyone to read along with me. I’m currently about two hundred pages into the “complete and uncut” edition, and I’m excited because this is one of his works that I’ve started several times in my life and never completely finished.
Maybe with a little accountability from you guys, I’ll make it all the way through this particular goal (and get back on the blog that started it all: People Are Afraid to Merge in LA.
Originally published on Henry Harbor on Monday, April 29, 2014
Following the unapologetic waste that was Fifty Shades of Grey, I desperately needed to cleanse my palate with the sorbet that is Stephen King — there’s nothing better than getting back to the roots of what really got me to be a reader in the first place, and it’s been several months since I dipped my nose into one of the grand tomes from the modern master of storytelling. Probably because of the Stephen King in 2013debacle. But the idea was something of an incredible endeavor. And a goal I never should have set for myself in the first place.
For Christmas 2012, my sister got me a boxed set of the first four books in the Dark Tower series, something that she and every other lover of Stephen King swears to be his magnum opus, his greatest work; however, in spite of being exposed to the author in the second grade (by the same chick who gave me the great Christmas present), I’d never once opened a single one of these particular volumes. I just assumed that it was in a realm of his mind that I never really cared to enter. There are others that fall into this sub-genre of his work. The Talisman and The Eyes of the Dragon are two other titles that come to mind. I’m an old school horror fan. I was raised on Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, Stephen King’s haunted hotel and the story of Pennywise the Clown. I love the idea that “we all float down here” and the fact that “the Overlook hotel has a kind of a shine to it.” I loved watching Chris pull the cord and the bucket of pig blood dropping onto Sissy Spacek’s prom dress and Dee Wallace clutching her son in the stark heat of summer as a rabid dog attacks the car. I delight in picking out which one of the female actresses will end up being the final girl in the movie and outwitting the stalker. I like my terror fiction filled with ghosts and rain and misty evenings and demonic possessions and things that go bump in the night. I didn’t want my image of King tainted by fantasy and/or the suggestion of (gasp!) speculative fiction.
My sister was insistent, and she couldn’t wait for me to start reading so that I could find out what everyone else had so often told me: the Dark Tower series ties together every word and every work that the master of modern horror fiction has ever written. Any self-respecting fan MUST read them. Otherwise, he or she falls short.
So I started with The Gunslinger.
And I didn’t get it.
I didn’t dislike the book. I just noticed that the language was different. The story was different. And nothing on the pages felt inviting or familiar, like coming home to the old friend that exists in most of Stephen King’s work.
The worst part was that I knew I was supposed to get it. And I was supposed to love it. So I figured there was something missing, and there was only one way to really get it the way everyone else did: read everything that Stephen King published, in chronological order, and write about it in my blog along the way. That’s what anyone else would do, right?
Well, I made it all the way through his first short story collection, Night Shift. All of the books, with the exception of Rage — which he published under his pseudonym from his early career — were some that I’d read before. I enjoyed going back, remembering, and picking up on aspects that I missed the first go-round.
Unfortunately, I fell off the wagon sometime around Thanksgiving of last year, and I went on a Stephen King-free diet. I never got around to the next title in the chronological bibliography, The Stand.
Until now.
So, here I am again. Giving this whole strict Stephen King diet another shot, and I want to encourage everyone to read along with me. I’m currently about two hundred pages into the “complete and uncut” edition, and I’m excited because this is one of his works that I’ve started several times in my life and never completely finished.
Maybe with a little accountability from you guys, I’ll make it all the way through this particular goal (and get back on the blog that started it all: People Are Afraid to Merge in LA.
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