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#ReadingLog

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Wordy Words on Words
Oh boy. Ohboyohboyohboyohboy, did I love this book!

I think this is in my top 5 King books. It sums up everything (but horror) that makes King such a great author. You can relate to the characters, there’s a heavy sense of nostalgia, there’s crime (though I will admit that the amount of crime made me wonder why this was a Hard Case book), and it’s a big slice of life book.

It’s charming.

Yeah, that’s the word: charming.

It’s about a college boy who gets a summer job at an amusement park where there may or may not be a ghost but there was DEFINITELY a disappearance/death.

My only critique is that King’s mysteries aren’t so much “mysteries” in the traditional sense where the reader is given enough clues to figure it out on their own. Usually King’s involves a character looking at something and realizing SOMETHING doesn’t seem right but they just can’t put their finger on it until… oh my god, they figured it out. But you, the reader, are not given the clues. You’re one step away from the protagonist and you can’t read his mind.

Which is kind of strange since King’s known for conveying inner thoughts.

Anyhoo, I’d say I don’t like that delivery of a mystery if King didn’t make his books so entertaining.

To be clear: I don’t go to King for Christie stories. I go to King for King stories.

And I REALLY like this older King style of storytelling. It’s more conversational and way more… I don’t know… intimate? It feels like I’m a kid at the foot of my grandfather’s rocking chair next to the fire rapt in the yarn that he’s spinning and that makes King unique and special in my book.

Also, I think this is a PERFECT book to loan to someone who is uninitiated. At this point people will say they haven’t read him because his books are long or they don’t like horror. Neither is a factor here.

#books #bookrecommendation #booktok #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booksky #readersofpixelfed #read #readinglog #stephenking #joyland #stephenkingbook #hardcasebook #crimebook
#crimebook
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Wordy Words on Words
I like baseball so this might be a bit biased.

I do NOT like baseball so much that I thought King’s “Faithful” was an exciting read, but I do like baseball and a common critique I hear about this story is that it’s boring because it focuses on, well, baseball.

But I love it. This is a novella written as an interview transcript. The interviewee, a character talking to King himself, is giving his memories on a player called Blockade Billy. It documents their season and ends about how you would expect a Stephen King story to end.

This isn’t the first time King has done stories written as transcripts (Dolores Claiborne was a whole NOVEL written as one) but I could see how it would throw some people off.

Look: I get why people might not like this story.

It’s short, it’s not horror in King’s traditional sense, it’s a transcript, and it’s about baseball.

But I think it’s great. It reminded me of those 1990s Disney sports movies, documenting the dramatic rise of the underdog to a big ending (though the endings are quite different) and I thought it was very exciting. It felt weird to get this nostalgic hit for DISNEY movies while reading KING but it happened.

Also, if you’re struggling with the transcript angle of the story (same for Dolores), I recommend checking your favorite audiobook sources for it because the narrator is very good and gives the transcript a lot of life and drama.

I think this is easily one of King’s hidden gems. People see the cover, shudder because they don’t like baseball, and dismiss it. But they shouldn’t be so fast because there’s a lot to love in this little novella.

#books #bookrecommendation #booktok #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booksky #readersofpixelfed #read #readinglog #stephenking #constantreader #blockadebilly #stephenkingbook
#stephenkingbook
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Wordy Words on Words
You know what? Let’s go back to the beginning. To Fear Street #1.

I keep getting thrown with the Columbo/Law & Order: CI openings where a crime is committed by SOMEONE and then the story actually starts, but it’s fine. I like Columbo and I LOVED CI.

I will say that a common critique you’re going to hear from me is a plot driven by poor communication. It’s a pet peeve of mine and just lazy writing. It’s also all OVER the Fear Street series.

Anyway, this book centers around a kid in high school who falls in love with the new girl, Anna. It IS a little strange that none of his friends know who she is, has her in their classes, and everyone that DOES know Anna insists that Anna…

Is dead.

I looked this up on Wikipedia to make sure I remembered the plot since I read this a couple years ago and it says that the boyfriend was convinced she was alive with her “human-like kisses.”

I literally laughed out loud.

Anyway, it turns out “Anna” isn’t Anna at ALL and she’s actually WILLA, Anna’s sister who killed Anna out of jealousy and assumed her identity. There’s a brother, Brad, and he plays a pretty important role. He shoved a girl down some stairs and I think he even killed a cat to stuff in a locker as a warning, but I don’t care about him.

My mind got snagged HARD on the idea that a teenage girl killed her teenage girl sister and just ADOPTED her personality. Where were her parents? Where was Brad? Why had nobody heard of Anna? Why is Willa going to school?

I just think that if you’re going to murder a sibling and assume their identity, high school years are the WORST years to do it.

That said, it was fun to re-read and still way better than Goosebumps.

I’m excited for the next one.

#books #bookrecommendation #booktok #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booksky #readersofpixelfed #read #readinglog #rlstine #rlstinebooks #fearstreet #fearstreetbooks #rlstinefearstreet #horror #horrorbooks #thriller #yathriller #yahorror
#yahorror
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Wordy Words on Words
It’s super interesting to read a philosopher’s take on how he thought Covid would impact our culture as a whole.

He was wrong, but I think we all were. I distinctly remember thinking that Covid could - for all the heartache and death it brought with it - also bring a reframing of our lives and a refreshed priority list to all of us. We could really take a moment and breathe for a bit, look around, and evaluate whether we as a society are okay with the grind that is modernity.

Turns out yes, people were okay with it. Well. Rich people were okay with it. As so often happens, the curtain lifted a bit to show that that so-called “unskilled labor force,” is actually holding up civilization while the rich just pretend to do important things.

At this point, Covid feels like a wasted opportunity to right an awful lot of wrongs.

Edit: I wrote the above in 2022 and I feel like I’ve just gotten more radicalized year after year from my disappointment in all of us as a society. We could have done so much. We could currently be in such a better place. But no, the workforce was forced to cave to the rich, showing their trick of limiting wages to barely livable also meant that nobody had the opportunity to reject the systems that they set up.

We were set up, exploited, and manipulated and words cannot express just how fucking angry I am about the whole thing because now there are ZERO silver linings or redeeming values to Covid19. Just a whole lot of unnecessary death and tighter grip on the people by corporations and billionaires.

It kills me, man. I’m not even kidding. I hate it and it breaks my heart every. single. day.

#bookstagram #book #books #bookreview #bookrecommendation #bookrecommendations #booklover #booknerd #bookaddict #read #readmore #readmorebooks #reader #constantreader #philosophy #slavojzizek #covid #pandemic #covidbook #booksky #readersofpixelfed #read #readinglog #covid19
#COVID19
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Wordy Words on Words
Do you remember how the first Haunted Mask was basically about the power of love?

This isn’t that.

Oh man, but I thought it would be! It was lining itself up SO perfectly for it.

You one of the little bastards from the first book who, for punishment, has to coach a whole team of even smaller little bastards - you know, like what happens at EVERY elementary school, right? A child given the responsibility of being the sole coach to a group of even smaller children? Parents are TOTALLY down for this.

Anyway, he hates these kids and he wants to scare them so he goes to the same place the last girl got her mask (ignoring her warnings) and found this old man mask.

Where the first mask made the girl slowly turn mean, this one just makes him into an old man. Walking becomes a challenge, talking is harder, etc.

And then he sees his team of kids and goes to them.

Now, *I* thought that they would help this old man out while talking about how they give their coach a hard time but that’s only because they feel so comfortable and trust him so much - that they really look up and love him.

Nope. They fucked right off.

This kid goes through the expected agony and the love trick from the first one doesn’t work for him.

Bummer.

What DOES work is reuniting the mask with its matching suit.

Logic.

At which point the whole suit and mask come to life and boogies out of the building like a character of Thunderbirds (the puppet show).

I think it’s a really weak book BUT I actually think it might be the best sequel so far in the series.

…Yup. Pretty sure. What else was there? Slappy? Come on. Monster Blood? Ugh - hell no.

No, this is the best one so far.

#books #bookrecommendation #booktok #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booksky #readersofpixelfed #read #readinglog #goosebumps #goosebumpsbook #goosebumpsbooks #rlstine #rlstinebook #rlstinegoosebumps #rlstinebooks
#rlstinebooks
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Wordy Words on Words
I won’t lie: I rolled my eyes at the cover, but this is actually one of the better ones in the series (which is nice since we’re so deep in it at this point). The premise is that the daughter of a ride designer and her best friend get to go on a tour of a new ride that focuses on the Shock Street horror movies.

And it goes horribly wrong (as you could guess).

There was a clever misdirect in the beginning where the daughter asks if they should take her mother on the ride as well and the dad says something like “excuse me, young lady?” Like she did something wrong.

“The mom must be dead,” I thought. Then everything after that was based around that until the best friend keeps harping on the fact that all these monsters must be robots because the girl’s dad is so great at making them. Then the friend pulled the girl out of a mud pit with strong arms and I thought “he’s a robot!”

“A robot that was made to be the girl’s best friend after her mom died!”

But I was wrong. Well. Partially wrong. Both kids were robots. The reason it was suspicious when she asked about her mom is that she didn’t have a mother.

I’ll admit it: I was fooled.

When you sit back and think about it, it IS weird that the trial run of the ride to see if it’s the right level of scary was done with two robot kids because… they’re robots. What real data are they going to give? Also, don’t robots famously not have emotions?

I also wonder why the robots were allowed to live lives that were at LEAST normal enough that they went to movie theaters and watched movies. Or were the memories false the whole time?

I 👏🏼 have 👏🏼 ques 👏🏼 tions. 👏🏼

Still. A good one for sure.

#books #bookrecommendation #booktok #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booksky #readersofpixelfed #read #readinglog #rlstine #rlstinegoosebumps #rlstinebooks #goosebumps #goosebumpsbook #goosebumpsbooks #horror #horrorbook #1990s
#1990s
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Wordy Words on Words
I’m actually kind of curious about this because I always thought I was up to date on these as a kid but I distinctly remember reading this one WAY before Attack of the Mutant.

Oh well.

This cover actually scared me as a kid honestly, but I can’t remember finishing it.

And I feel like I definitely would have remembered finishing it because this is probably the dumbest entry so far.

It’s another body swap book where kids become dogs and then do… ugh. Just the most idiotic things in the world.

One of them is like “I have to tell my parents what happened but I can’t talk. Because I’m a dog.

“I know! I’LL WRITE THEM A LETTER.”

Bro, I don’t know how to break this to you, so I’ll do it as gently as possible:

You are a DOOOOOGGGGGG!

Sure enough he tries to grab a pen and uh-oh! No thumbs! That’ll throw a wrench in the ol’ letter-writing works!

But that’s this whole book. Dumb idea after dumb idea and when the end comes you hope whatever head injury Stine suffered while writing this has worn off and that maybe the next book will be better.

Also, as an adult I think what I was scared of with the cover were the eyes because the way too-small mouth never got me. That thing killing you would be a logical challenge - at least for long enough to make your escape.

NEXT!

#books #bookrecommendation #booktok #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booksky #readersofpixelfed #read #readinglog #goosebumps #goosebumpsbook #goosebumosbooks
#goosebumosbooks
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Wordy Words on Words
Tough read.

As a white guy I want to help fix the system, but I don’t want to go into savior or, worse, parent-mode like some people do.

But I also don’t want to just sit on the sidelines and wait for the system to change.

There’s an essay in here about a group formed to help move civil rights forward and, because of their experience, white people were at the top positions. The group was largely successful because it was these people who were knocking on doors and going to meetings.

But the group said they didn’t think it was right that a group that was formed to improve the lives of black people was basically being run by white people.

The white people agreed 100%, handed everything over and moved solidly into the background doing lower-visibility work.

And the group’s success plummeted because that‘s the world we live in.

So, genuinely, what can I - a skeleton often compared to a loaf of Wonder Bread - do? How can I help?

As for the rest of this book, a lot of the essays felt a little… dreamy for me. Talks of a maroon society that will never exist for instance. Or essays about specific instances that I am wholly unfamiliar with.

Thank god it was a short book. I don’t think my heart could have taken much more.

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#readinglog
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Taylor Drew :tokyo:

I compiled a list of what I read in the past month on my blog again. Still not completely sold on how I'm doing it, but I'm commited to keeping up the habit and figuring it out as I go.

That being said, if anyone has any suggestions or anything they want to add about any of the books I've talked about, feeling free to let me know!

taylordrew.me/october-2024-rea

Taylor Drew - Japanese to English Translatoroctober 2024 readsIt's been a month, but I somehow read a lot of books. I attribute it to the fact that many were very short and intentionally easy to ready—also the very firs...
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Jesse Skinner

Picked up Blue Skies by T. C. Boyle today, about Floridians in the future adapting to "the "new normal" in which once-in-a-lifetime natural disasters happen once a week." Seems highly relevant at the moment.

I've read a couple other books by him and really enjoyed them, so I'm looking forward to digging into this one.

The cover of Blue Skies by T. C. Boyle, a palm tree in front of a ball of flame against a blue sky.
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Jesse Skinner

Just finished Neuromancer, my first time reading William Gibson. Difficult but worth it. Wow. Amazing and prophetic, so many things written in 1984 that have become relatable today. The world he creates is so massive and complex. Curious about the sequels, but I think I'll read something lighter in the interim.

Cover of Neuromancer by William Gibson
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Jesse Skinner

I also started reading "Short Stories in German: Read for pleasure at your level and learn German the fun way." by Oily Richards and Alex Rawlings.

I fear it's too beginner for me, but it's nice practice to read some German text where I know almost all the words, and maybe learn a few new words too.

The cover of Short Stories in German
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