Why you stuck up, half witted, scruffy looking, nerf-herder!

Sorry.  I saw that line in reply to someone whining about TOR being bad on the PCG forums, and I just had to repeat it.  What a brilliant reply.

Also, here is a brilliant snippet of song lyric for you as well:

"There's a party inside my head.  And no one is invited."

Anyway, I'm here today to discuss something completely unrelated to the Star Wars beta.  It's a book, actually!  11/22/63.

This is Stephen King's newest title.  I will admit that I don't read as much as I would like -- the amount of free time I have to do so just isn't there with all the other interests that I have.  (I'm looking at you, gaming.)  But I do it when I can.  This primarily means that I'm reading in bed long after I should be sleeping, but I digress.

I recently purchased the new Amazon Kindle Fire, because as the very first entry in this blog will tell you, deep down I am a trendy son of a bitch.  If someone asks me why I purchased such a device, I will undoubtedly tell them it's because I hold a certain amount of disdain for hardcover books.  When I'm trying to read them in bed, their corners seem to enjoy digging into my nipples, or do other equally unappealing things to my body.  The Kindle is a sleek, thin little device that is quite pleasant to hold upright as I lay in bed enjoying a good yarn.

The real reason, though, is that naturally it's new and shiny and I wanted one.

In any case, the Kindle arrived at my door on Wednesday, which was perfect because it gave the two of us a long 4-day weekend to get acquainted.  The first thing I did was purchase 11/22/63, which I had wanted to get as soon as it came out a couple of weeks ago.  (But I didn't, because of the whole I-hate-hardcover-books thing.)  I started reading the book (which seems strange to say now, since I don't actually have a BOOK) that night, and have been whittling away at the chapters each night since.

I have a love-hate relationship with Stephen King.  I love reading his books, and I hate the fact that when I'm reading a book not written by him I find myself missing his distinct style of writing.  I honestly can't explain this.  The man simply writes in exactly the way I like to read words.  That's the best I can do.  There's this certain sardonic sense of humor he has that really appeals to my cynical nature.  When I'm not reading a Stephen King book, I'm wishing that I -was- reading one.  It's both good (because it means that I will probably enjoy any one of his books), and bad (because there are countless other brilliant authors out there that I should be reading).

To go off on a weird tangent here for a moment:  I have a new philosophy in regards to what it takes to make a good story.  You have to make your reader believe that the events happening in your story are the most important things in existence at that point in time.  While I'm reading this book, I know damn well that Roland is out there questing for the Dark Tower so that he can save the universe.  I know that IT is not really dead, and only sleeping, and will awaken again in 28 or so odd years.  I know there are many other things happening in Stephen King's fictional universe, a lot of which are more important than a guy going back in time to save one man's family.  But Stephen King writes his stories in such a way that you forget all of that and you are solely focused on -this- story, because he writes it in such a way that you're so drawn into it, that it becomes the most important thing at that point in time.  That's what makes a good story.

And now I've successfully derailed myself.  What was I talking about?  Oh yes.  So the book is really good.  I'm pretty far into it, and we haven't even started on the whole 11/22/63 thing yet.  The main character is going back and changing something smaller first, because he wants to see what the "butterfly effect" of it is going to be.

So far, my favorite (I use the term loosely) portion of the book was how descriptive he was regarding how this guy used a sledgehammer to murder his oldest son.  I can't honestly say I've ever imagined that a hammer could split someone's head down the middle all the way to their jaw.  Thanks for that, Stephen King!  I'm so glad that after all these years, you're still capable of giving me nightmares.

I hope the rest of this book is as enjoyable as what I've read so far.  I have this fear that I won't find the remainder as interesting, because so far the main character has been spending his time in the past within the town of Derry, Maine.  I love Derry, because there's something wrong with Derry.  "Something wrong.  Something bad." as Stephen King puts it in the book.  Derry has been the setting for other stories -- most notably IT.  The town is evil in and of itself, and going back to Derry has been utterly fascinating for someone like me, who has read the other novels taking place there.  There's this eerie familiarity that creates tension and keeps me enthralled.  I hope when we move on to Dallas to stop Oswald, the book keeps me interested.  We'll see!