Coulrophobia

Before I can start reading a new book, I have to digest this one.

Took me almost a complete month to read IT by Stephen King because it's over 1000 pages. Haven't been able to get through many books that long, but this one I did (mostly).

You might wonder why a person would want to escape a disappointing reality with a horror novel -- I came up with this explanation: even though I wasn't thinking, "I'm glad my life isn't like this!", the story engrossed me to a point where I was no longer thinking about my real life. This is one reason it annoyed me so much that I needed to skim certain areas of the book.

While King is great at painting a gruesome, graphic picture, he also goes into great characterization details and tangents -- most of which are good, but some of which drag and leave you wishing someone would get his head pulled off. So when the kids started doing their stupid, everyday kid things, I'd think, "I sure don't need to have anything to do with this ..." and got the gist of it instead of savoring every word (I'm sorry!).

There were times while I was reading on the subway that something so shocking would happen in the book that I'd physically react, which attracted the stares of others. Mostly I was cool. Didn't miss any stops, but came awfully close. My hour and a half commute went by like nothing.

So while I can recommend this book and I enjoyed it a lot, on a scale of 1-5, I'd have to give it a 3 because of all the skimming. If IT were a fraction of the length, the story would have been perfect.

Reading on the Subway, Balloons, and Being Mean to Characters

My commute every day is roughly an hour and a half each way, which gives me plenty of time to catch up on some reading now that things have settled down. The subway is a great place to detach because who wants to focus on the weird person falling asleep on your shoulder, or listen to the gum-popper or crying baby? Earbuds. Book. Keep your belongings in sight, and have a great day.


I started reading IT by Stephen King because I have a strange fear of clowns stemming back to an episode of Matlock I saw when I was a kid (don't even ask). Anyway, unlike wasps or dentists, I don't come in contact with clowns hardly at all, so I figured reading a horror story about one wouldn't be a huge deal. Thankfully, I was right.

I'm not done with the story yet, so it might get bad really quickly, but for now, I'm enjoying the characterization interspersed with terrifying, violent scenes involving a shape-shifting clown and his multitude of balloons (don't even get me started on balloons!)



Long story short (hah!) this book has given me some great ideas of where to take my current work in progress, Awake. Of course, I won't be copying anything Mr. King has done, but I'll be learning much more about my characters and giving them a lot more background. Because when you care about a character (a lot), it's ten times worse when the author does something horrible to them.

Pusheen

Can I just tell everyone how much I love this necklace? 

Reminds me a little of my own cat.

But pretty much everything reminds me of this little face!